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February 28, 2010
Live review: Dirty Projectors at Disney Hall - Los Angeles Times
Live review: Dirty Projectors at Disney Hall Los Angeles Times Before "The Getty Address," the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed a brief program of pieces Longstreth had selected by Ligeti, Wagner and Ravel. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Simon Rattle on why he'll never go back to Britain - Times Online
 Times Online | Simon Rattle on why he'll never go back to Britain Times Online We did Stockhausen's Gruppen in a vast, Nazi-era aircraft hangar there. Stockhausen would have loved it. Unfortunately he died a few weeks earlier. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Music to challenge the soul Enso String Quartet explores themes of war and ... - Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com
 Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com | Music to challenge the soul Enso String Quartet explores themes of war and ... Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com Equally impressive is the Enso's dedication to the music of our time.” Enso will perform minimalist composer Steve Reich's groundbreaking 1988 piece on the ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Music review: Southwest Chamber Music takes on Vietnam - Los Angeles Times
Music review: Southwest Chamber Music takes on Vietnam Los Angeles Times Performances will include new work by one of America's most promising young composers, Alexandra du Bois, and its oldest, 101-year-old Elliott Carter, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Fragments of a Bohlen-Pierce Composition (Pt 9)
The program notes and biographies for the for the Bohlen-Pierce Symposium are now posted; Here’s mine.
I’m currently blocking out the structure of the piece, and would like to take a moment to discuss what’s bouncing around the confines of my skull. From the program notes:
“This direction emulates the way in which a hacker approaches the challenge of dissecting a piece of software or electronic device.”
Second:
“There’s always a rhythm to the space between things. Pause, hold the thought, check the moment. Repeat. Wait. There it goes again. Another thought, another pause in the stream of conscious in another abstraction–the reader, the listener. Speak these words out loud, and the same logic applies–there’s always a rhythm to the space between things.” – Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid), Sound Unbound
I believe there is a rhythm to computer code. The way it reads, the way the computer reads it, the way logical expressions are grouped, how it functions as a whole, how data is pumped in one side, translated, and then poured out the other side, etc.
Since I’ve adopted a hacker-like approach to the Bohlen-Pierce scale, I felt compelled to translate elements of coding into aspects of the composition. Each line of code is a statement. A grouping of related code is a statement. Each feeds off and into other statements. And there is a rhythm to be found in between all of them.
The title Fragments also implies multiple things. I have a collection of various musical statements and processes. I’m trying to figure out how to hack these individual ideas into single functioning work. I want the listener to be able to hear each fragment individually, while hearing them together as a functioning unit. This idea is a lot like code. Any single function or subroutine can be analyzed individually, ignorant of everything else. Though this same subroutine is still part of a larger functioning unit, the program. Am I making any sense?
What this all boils down to is that I want the piece to be perceived as discrete, yet having a natural flowing rhythm to it. This is what I’m trying to achieve. I’m now trying to establish that rhythm. I’m about half way through. And when I’m done, that’s when real fun starts.
Download: fragments_9.csd
Originally posted by Jacob Joaquin from The Csound Blog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
dal niente's reductionist take on Mahler's “Das Lied” offers mixed success - Chicago Classical Review
dal niente's reductionist take on Mahler's “Das Lied” offers mixed success Chicago Classical Review Its hip young players have presented programs that range from newly commissioned pieces to music of such giants as Morton Feldman and Gyorgy Ligeti. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
The Knife/ Mt Sims / Planningtorock: Tomorrow, in a Year - The Guardian
 The Guardian | The Knife/ Mt Sims / Planningtorock: Tomorrow, in a Year The Guardian ... very reminiscent of Meredith Monk to my ears. How about a decent feature on MM in the Guard/Obs soon, rather than the annual Steve Reich profile? Thanks. |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
Logorama
Found it (God bless Twitter).Enjoy:
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
02/24/10 playlist
David Lang ~ The So-Called Laws Of Nature ~ So PercussionKyle Gann ~ Last Chance
interview with Male Soprano Michael Maniaci
Mozart ~ Exsultate, Jubilate K. 165 ~ Allegro ~ Michael Maniaci
Zhou Long ~ Summer
~ Winter ~ from Madame White Snake
Theo Bleckmann & Kneebody ~ Songs My Mother Taught Me ~ Charles Ives
Owen Pallett ~ Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
Arthur Russell ~ Instrumentals vol. 2
After the broadcast that day, my buddy Harry and I went to NYC to see the Bang on a Can All-Stars People's Commissioning Fund concert, so a little BoaC to close the show seemed in order.
Nick Didkovsky ~ Amalia's Secret
Brian Eno ~ 2/1
Originally from Music For Internets, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
Music Festivals Are Siblings, Invisibly Bonded - New York Times
Music Festivals Are Siblings, Invisibly Bonded New York Times The Other Minds Festival could draw on the Noise Pop model to open up the insular world of contemporary classical music, while Noise Pop could look to Other ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)
It's Alive! Celebrates a Day of Silence - Hartford Courant (blog)
It's Alive! Celebrates a Day of Silence Hartford Courant (blog) Cage's masterpiece of avant-garde music the subject of a new book by critic and composer Kyle Gann, No Such Thing as Silence (to be published next month). ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)
Fontana Chamber Arts announces 10th anniversary season - Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com
 Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com | Fontana Chamber Arts announces 10th anniversary season Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com The Downtown series opens Oct. 9 with a program called “Birth of the Avant Garde,” featuring Pedja Muzijevic on piano and Suren Bagratuni on cello. ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)
Feldman Says ...
Morton Feldman held the post of Professor of Composition at the University of Buffalo from 1973 till his death in 1987. During his tenure he gave a series of lectures which have been preserved, transcribed and converted to audio files, all of which may be found here. It's definitely worth a listen and a read. I don't think that these have been reproduced anywhere else, including Chris Villars's wonderful collection "Morton Feldman Says". The most revealing talk was the one where Feldman talks about Madame Press Died Last Week At Ninety. Two quotes:"I was consciously attempting to relive my own musical history while thinking of her. Those were the harmonies of my youth. What was unconscious was the significance of putting the tempo at quarter note equals ninety. It was also unconscious that I repeated those falling thirds 87 times, very close to that fated number of her death";
... (digression) ...
I've been thinking about time lately (always, always time), and in the context of reliving one's own musical history, I recently came across a wonderful passage in John Daverio's book Crossing Paths where Daverio argues that the F minor Impromptu of Schubert represents Schubert embodying sonata form, his personal past, in the context of a character piece, music's (then) Romantic present. But I digress ...
And: "The feeling I have about this composition is that I went back as if making peace with a steady pulsating beat, making peace with measured time, a chronological time, that is analogous to life passing by or passing us by. One, two, three, four. It takes very little time in music to count up to 90".
What's curious is why Feldman describes the number of occurrences of the falling third as 87 (three short of the number of Madame Press's death), when it does in fact repeat a total of 90 times (how Feldman weaves the number 90 into the score, not only in terms of the tempo marking - quarter note equals 90 - but in terms of the repeated figure that accompanies our listening, an ironically tender metronome, is beautifully Josquineque or Dufayesque or Bergian). I've been thinking quite alot about time lately, and why time seems to speed up as we get older. A dear friend of mine recently described a theory of his to me about this very phenomena. For him, the perception of time quickens as we get older because we perceive duration only in relation of our constantly lived, constantly renewing present (the part) to our entire past, to our memory (the whole). Hence, for my almost-2-year-old niece, this second year of hers feels long because its exactly the length of her experience of what a "year" means, what it constitutes. But if you're 50, a year is merely 1/50th of your entire accumulated past, and while clocks measure time equally for both 2-year-old and for 50-year-old, its mechanics privilege space over time: it assumes an equal journey for toddler and adult, when in fact we have so many more memories to bring to the surface, to confront, and to re-experience. Feldman's Madame Press then is an essay of a life well-lived and evidently well-loved, but it is also, in essence, an essay about all our lives, its inevitable finitude, and how we perceive the years that tick by, sometimes noticed, sometimes not, the quickening of a pulse, the quieting of a heart.
Originally from Theater of Found Sounds, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
Herzog - First Summer and The Running Dream
Herzog’s mesmerizing First Summer and The Running Dream is a ambient journey into minimalism. The electronic drones and tones serve up meditative soundscapes of a dream-like quality. All five tracks are interesting but I especially like the bell-like quality of “Congratulations, Here’s Your Mountain”. Ambient music aficionados will enjoy this.
The album is available in 320kbps MP3 from the Resting Bell netlabel.
ef="http://www.restingbell.net/releases/rb075-first-summer-and-the-running-dream">Download
Originally posted by Marvin from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
Idealized, Totemic Love: Godfrey Winham and Bethany Beardslee before the Age of AutoTune
L et me not to the marriage of true mindsL isten to this excerpt:
Admit impediments; love is not Love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh, no!
It is an ever fixèd Mark
That looks on tempests, never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring barque,
Whose worth’s unknown though His height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within His bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with His brief hours and weeks,
Love bears it out to the edge of Doom.
If this be error and upon me prov’d,
I never writ nor no man [or woman] ever lov’d.”
William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVI.
[50-sec clip, Bethany Beardslee & Robert Helps, Godfrey Winham, ‘To Prove My Love’, III, 1974, 1.6MB MP3]
O ver the past month I have been reading Leslie Blasius’s 1997 monograph on Godfrey Winham (link below), especially passages about Winham’s composition for soprano and string quartet, ‘Habit of Perfection’.
D uring this month I have also been listening and re-listening to the CRI disc, ‘Tribute to Bethany Beardslee’, who was Godfrey’s wife. The disc contains a recording of Bethany singing Winham’s composition, ‘To Prove My Love’, accompanied by Robert Helps on piano.
T he piece is published by Boelke-Bomart Inc in Hillsdale, New York, but the score for it was originally published in memoriam, in volume 13 (1975) of the journal, Perspectives of New Music, immediately after Winham’s death.
T he phrasing and perfection of the intervals that Beardslee sings are amazing. The voice-leading that Winham wrote for her is tight-rope like—no, more like virtuosic, risky ballet “choreography” for the voice.
L ove bears it out to the edge of Doom, as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 has it.
W hat were these three sonnets—to Godfrey; to Bethany? The piece was composed during the first several years of their marriage, but on this recording it is performed when they had been married 19 years, still in their 40s, near the end of Godfrey’s long illness, youthful but within a few months of his dying and aged way beyond their years...
T here is a maturity and expressive clarity of Beardslee’s and Helps’s performance that poignantly manifests the vulnerability of the soprano wife gazing into the abyss of her husband’s fast-approaching terminal phase. It simultaneously bears the marks of bravery and devotion, defiant strength and tragic fragility. Frailty with advancing illness. Glenn Gould’s last recordings of the Goldberg Variations in 1981, compared to the ones from 1955? Well, no.
O r Johnny Cash’s last recordings? No, but still.
W hen we first went back and listened to the recordings after he had passed, it really just felt like this voice, coming back from another ‘place’. It had all this weight and gravity to it. Scary. You can hear good days and bad days in the voice. Sometimes, it’s weak—as if Cash were struggling for breath. Other times it’s stronger.”W inham’s frailty and inner strength, projected vicariously through the piano part that Robert Helps executes beautifully. We suspect that ‘bearing it out to the edge of Doom’ meant something a bit different in June, 1974, when the piece was recorded than it meant in 1956 when the piece was composed. In 1974, Doom was plainly visible.
Rick Rubin, interview with David Bauder on new Cash CD.
A lapse in sense happens between the twelfth and thirteenth lines of the sonnet. Most of the words are monosyllables; only three contain more syllables than two. Poetic diction is ruptured. The language is now concrete, not abstract or metaphysical. There are run-on lines and the pair of double-endings. There is, as Brooke put it, “a happy blending of open and closed vowels, and of liquids, nasals, and stops.” No Antares AutoTune® or vocoder processing. Only human pitch-shifting and formant correction that defies the impermanence of the flesh. The res-o-lute, fixèd accents in the quatrains give way finally to progressively more vulnerable, unrelieved iambic feet—ones that accept the reality of the soul stuck in the unreliable flesh. The thing converges on silence and ends. The ending is a meditative silence, a ‘hanging’ sonic [non-]event. Runic, millennial, catastrophic.
W hat is needed is a definition of ‘hanging’ which makes use of the notion of ‘effective context’, with the result that a tone is not ‘hanging’ before it occurs. An event x may be said to be ‘effective’ at the time of an event y if and only if x belongs to the effective context of y. An event x may be said to be ‘closed-off’ from y if it is subordinate to another sonic event z which occurs between x and y in time. An event x is ‘hanging’ at the time of an event y if it belongs to the effective context of y and is not closed-off from y, although there is a superior stage at which it is closed-off from y.”L istening to the piece over and over, I sense a sort of adult willfulness that is out-of-sync with an inner childlike sense of reality. The complex personality who wrote such complex, chaotic music theory, all stored in 6.7 linear feet in the Princeton University Library in 16 archival boxes of cross-indexed papers and notebooks... still had this child inside, who was true and who hoped for everything. Who loved these sonnets, not as worthy artistic vehicles for creating prestigious, commendable academic compositions, but as totems erected to honor a love that defined him. Standing stones.
Godfrey Winham writings, Container VIII, page *26d.
“Will Bethany be able to do this? Will I be able to do this?”
C hords with more upper structure notes, sounding more active compared to ones with more basic chord tones, which become points of resolution. Idiomatic and fluent writing; the beginning of each movement asks a question and so drives our interest; natural flow to focal points and climaxes; appropriate and sensitive realization of the text; effective and resourceful use of texture, with many imaginative challenges. This is the composer who in the 1960s imagined elegant computer-synthesized soprano voice, long before the technology could fulfill the fantasy. This is the soprano who could sing whatever notes are on the page, the fantasy who inspired the composer’s imagination.
M ost people don’t think of Winham as a contrapuntist, and it is true that one does not find much in the way of imitative counterpoint in his music. He never composed any fugues, and there are not many canons by Winham. However it can, and should, be said that Winham’s counterpoint is exquisite.
L eslie David Blasius is currently Professor of Music Theory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His book includes a set of complete excerpts of materials and an index for the entire Winham archive, which is housed at Princeton University. The book also contains a series of photographs, of Godfrey and Bethany and friends (including the one above).
T o read Blasius’s book and to listen to this CD is to wish to have known these wonderful human beings. I will plan to visit the 6.7 linear feet of Winham boxes the next time I am in Princeton...
- Tribute to Bethany Beardslee. (CRI, 1997.)
- Blasius L. The Music Theory of Godfrey Winham. Princeton Univ, 1997.
- Cash J. Ain't No Grave. (American Recordings/Lost Highway, 2010.)
- Fuller J, ed. Oxford Book of Sonnets. OXford Univ, 2000.
- Maren R. Godfrey Winham Writings on Music. Princeton Univ Lib entry.
- Miller N. Basic sonnet forms. Summary at Sonnet.org.
- Morris R. Composition with Pitch-Classes: A Theory of Compositional Design. Yale Univ, 1987. [origins in Winham's array composition]
- Princeton Univ Music Dept website
- Regan S. The Sonnet. Oxford Univ, 2010.
- Schneiderman L. Embracing Our Mortality: Hard Choices in an Age of Medical Miracles. Oxford Univ, 2008.
- Vendler H. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Harvard Univ, 1999.
- Winham G. Composition with arrays. Perspectives of New Music 1970; 9:43-67.
- Wuorinen C. Simple Composition. CF Peters, 1994. [esp. pp. 130ff on time-pitch correlation]
font-size:80%;"> ow can you make a new revolution when your last statement already said that anything goes?”
Charles Wuorinen.
Originally from Chamber Music Today, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
Unpublished memories of young Mahler
An Israeli website is directing an awful lot of traffic to my 2008 post Young Mahler - encouragement worthwhile? As this is Mahler anniversary year and the little story is only available On An Overgrown Path I thought it worth sharing with everyone.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Full-bodied music fleshes out triumphant love story - The Age
Full-bodied music fleshes out triumphant love story The Age And what music it is: Ligeti refers to everything from Rossini patter songs and Monteverdi toccatas, to more direct references to Beethoven and, indeed, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Fontana Chamber Arts announces 10th anniversary season - Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com
Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com | Fontana Chamber Arts announces 10th anniversary season Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com View full sizeCourtesy of Fontana Chamber Arts.Classical beat: So Percussion members will premiere a new Steve Reich piece in their Fontana concert. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Second Performance
This post is all after the fact (and so probably fails to emulate a blogly timepoint) . . . but Jaya labored mightily to organize a benefit concert for Haiti earthquake relief. The centerpiece for the concert-to-be was a Bach Cantata, so Jaya fought off a cold while casting about a net for singers and “old music” instrumentalists, and thinking repertory. To my profound pleasure, Jaya leafed through the Henning catalogue and found a Psalm setting I had been commissioned to compose for choir & organ, and which was performed once by the St Paul’s Cathedral choir here in Boston (20 March 2005).Manifold was my pleasure at the prospect of a fresh performance of my De profundis. For one thing, there is the truth in Zappa's trenchant remark on new music — that even though the program says “World Première,” that usually means “Last Performance.” It can be (and in most cases, just plain is) difficult to bring a new score to a first performance; but (to evoke that magical phrase) a new piece doesn’t enter the repertory merely as a result of a première . . . and it is in many ways yet more a triumph when a piece gets a second performance.
For another, here was the prospect of a performance, which was not a direct result of my own efforts, which is not a performance in which the composer is himself a participant.
Please do not mistake me — I like playing, wish I were playing more (or, what is subtly different, wish I had more time for playing), and I enjoy singing, and I enjoy conducting. Performance was the mode in which I first became a musician, and I hope never to abandon it.
For a composer to become a success, though, his music needs to be performed and taken up by broader and broader circles. The tightest circle imaginable is, performances directly involving the composer.
To wax geometric for a moment, I took pleasure in the grander circumference of the circle in this instance.
Hearty thanks and a hearty kudos to all the musicians, who volunteered their time, talent & energies in the cause of the concert generally, and to my piece in particular.
There is a proper recording which was made of the concert, a copy of which will wend its way to-me-ward at some point. But I did have with me my shoestring “field recorder,” and the yen for some instant gratification in this case was too powerful not to yield to, and I did throw the switch:
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Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
grimly brilliant body of work - The Australian
grimly brilliant body of work The Australian But where the production gets it exquisitely right is in how it combines the lighting, projected on to the nude figure, with Ligeti's music: both move, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
Regional arts and entertainment events - Philadelphia Inquirer
Regional arts and entertainment events Philadelphia Inquirer Vocal trio The new-music ensemble Relâche teams with the Philadelphia Singers for premieres of choral works by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Gavin Bryars ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
[no title]
Originally from deerhunter / atlas sound / lotus plaza, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
Bill McHenry: Bloom & Narrow Margin - All About Jazz
Bill McHenry: Bloom & Narrow Margin All About Jazz It's perfectly appropriate for the music's eternal glissando nature, until McHenry makes a shocking entry to close, sounding just like a motherless seal pup ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Religious texts on a personal note - Jerusalem Post
Religious texts on a personal note Jerusalem Post They had Boulez and such influences; there was nothing for me there. It was the right thing to do to come to Israel, to find my own areas of research, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Big Sur
The Sounds of Nature - Big Sur cassette released in 1995For this post, we'll stay on the California coast. This recording is of the ocean waves on the shores of Big Sur and the birds that inhabit the area.BIG SUR is that portion of Northern California that is so spectacular, it attracts millions of tourists each year. It is a 30-mile stretch that has been called "a garden spot on earth." PeopleOriginally from A Closet of Curiosities, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Boulez on Music 22 Years Ago
Today I ran across a box of cassettes that has been misplaced for years. Among many treasures are my interviews with Boulez, Yoko Ono, Trimpin, Ashley, Branca, Mikel Rouse, and a few others, plus about ten cassettes' worth of Nancarrow. I thought the Boulez interview might be of particular interest. It took place in a hotel room in Chicago on October 27, 1987, when Boulez had come to perform Repons and conduct the Chicago Symphony in his Notations and other works. This was back when I'd only been at the Voice a few months, and I was interviewing him for the Chicago Reader, where I'd been free-lancing for five years. The whole interview is 67 minutes, and some of it is a little dated, talking about the impending possibility of classical music's dying, which of course 22 years later we know is apparently not going to happen. But I'll put up the most interesting snippets, totaling almost half, from the interview here:Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)
FLORENT SCHMITT: Psalm 47 “Gloire du Seigneur,” Op. 38; La Tragedie de Salome ... - Audiophile Audition
 Audiophile Audition | FLORENT SCHMITT: Psalm 47 “Gloire du Seigneur,” Op. 38; La Tragedie de Salome ... Audiophile Audition ... of whom Henri Dutilleux wrote, “gave back to the French school certain notions of grandeur.” Schmitt harbored decidedly German values, and the music of ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 05:12 AM | Comments (0)
Promise an EU referendum and avoid a hung Parliament - Telegraph.co.uk
Promise an EU referendum and avoid a hung Parliament Telegraph.co.uk There is a word for sounds with no rhythm and random tone sequences, as perpetrated by Schoenberg, Webern and Stockhausen. No matter how highbrow the ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
Krystian Zimerman; Life: A Journey Through Time/LSO; Satyagraha/ENO - The Guardian
 The Guardian | Krystian Zimerman; Life: A Journey Through Time/LSO; Satyagraha/ENO The Guardian The date was wrong, too, for those music cognoscenti for whom Boulez alone was God, and who pilloried Glass's fondness for gorgeous, soaring melodies. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
Chileans in New Jersey anxiously await news of relatives - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
 The Star-Ledger - NJ.com | Chileans in New Jersey anxiously await news of relatives The Star-Ledger - NJ.com Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerStanding in her Union City restaurant, Valparaiso Restaurant Cafe, Chilean native Berta ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 28, 2010 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2010
Alasdair Nicolson et al: Play - Times Online
Alasdair Nicolson et al: Play Times Online ... the 15-item sequence embraces a Piazzolla tango (with voiceover), pieces by Byrd, Dowland and Bach, Ligeti's marvellously imaginative Autumn in Warsaw, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
The Philadelphia Inquirer David Patrick Stearns column: Sextet x 2: eighth ... - California Chronicle
The Philadelphia Inquirer David Patrick Stearns column: Sextet x 2: eighth ... California Chronicle ... its modern-music affiliations. An important milestone, no doubt, is what ended Wednesday's joint concert with the Curtis 20/21 ensemble: Steve Reich's ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
SPCO offers an eclectic schedule - Minneapolis Star Tribune
SPCO offers an eclectic schedule Minneapolis Star Tribune In the classical music/performing arts world, that is quite significant -- for an organization as well-regarded as the SPCO. Artistic partner Roberto Abbado ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Music Festivals Are Siblings, Invisibly Bonded - New York Times
Music Festivals Are Siblings, Invisibly Bonded New York Times But instead of appearing on the same program, the composers' music is reaching audiences in entirely different settings. Mr. Hebden's scheduled appearance ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Heug
Sound Clips: Todioo Hee Hee, Hombellebaa Hombelle Lee Lee Lee, and Gebberesk by Heug.
Heug is a duo from the Netherlands with slightly odd instrumentation (mainly harps, loops, slide trumpets and strange vocals and whatever we take with us.) The duo consists of loop-orientated live musician Jan Schellink and jew’s harp player, vocalist Danibal. The project is about listening, anticipation and very playful. Music can vary from soundscapes with folky elements and loosely improvised pop-music. Heug is situated somewhere between improvised cabaret/comedy and sound performance.
Originally posted by Margaret from Sound is Art, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded - take 1
This is a work in progress.Play it:
Subscribe here:
I've finished the first run through of the piece. It's not quite ready, but I've run out of time to create the CD, so it's what gets burned there.
Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
It's important, so we demand improvement
Pliable gets it exactly right:
A critic writing a savage review of a concert is considered to be doing his job, not being anti-classical music. But a commentator writing critically of the BBC's output is considered to be an anti-BBC heretic. Which suggests parallels between the BBC and the established Church. Both have been flattered for decades by unquestioning believers. Both are now in terminal decline. And the loss of both will be a great tragedy.
Unfortunately, it appears that this is far too subtle for the management of many of our institutions: criticism, when expressed because one finds the work or the institution so important that one wants it to be done better, simply gets heard (and used) as a vote against all such work or institutions of the sort. This problem is far from confined to the U.K.. New music programming in German radio stations faces exactly the same problem, exacerbated by ratings competition from private broadcasters and the budget pressure put on by the extortion-in-the-guise-of-the-holy-cow-called-professional-soccer. And let's not even get started on the US where new music has never been a presence in NPR affilliates and where slicing the schedule up to cover social or political interest groups has led Pacifica to all-but remove new music from its schedules. So we're stuck in the awkward position of having to praise whatever does get programmed — even when it's mediocre or just plain crap — out of fear that anything other than praise will be taken as grounds for eliminating new music coverage altogether. And — misfortune on top of unfortune — this tends to have the side effect of validating the mediocre programming instead of improving it, which just contributes to the downward spiral.
Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
The first cut is the deepest
A critic writing a savage review of a concert is considered to be doing his job, not being anti-classical music. But a commentator writing critically of the BBC's output is considered to be an anti-BBC heretic. Which suggests parallels between the BBC and the established Church. Both have been flattered for decades by unquestioning believers. Both are now in terminal decline. And the loss of both will be a great tragedy.
A regular reader from the States writes asking for comment on the latest reports of cuts at the BBC, a subject I have hesitated to cover for the reasons set out above. But, using the justification so often cited by the BBC - 'it's what the audience wants', here goes.
There is currently so much bad news about the BBC it is difficult to know where to start. Within the last few days two major stories have broken. First came a damning report from the National Audit Office on the £100 million overspend on the rebuilding of Broadcasting House, which included £25,000 for a two minute flight by a remote control toy helicopter to record the work for posterity. The National Audit Office report concluded that the renovation project suffered from 'weak governance', which prompted a BBC trustee to admit license payers had been 'let down', surely the understatement of the year? Close on the heels of this fiasco came a leak reported in the Times of possible £600 million cuts, including the closing of two national radio stations.
The National Union of Journalists said yesterday it had "received a detailed briefing" from the BBC about the cuts which confirmed "media reports as largely correct". The need for multi-milion pound cost savings must be read in conjunction with disclosures about executive salaries and expenses, including BBC Radio 3 controller Roger Wright spending £7000 on taxi fares and £4 on Underground (subway) transport over a 12 month period.
An addiction to taxi rides summarises today's BBC. A recent Freedom of Information disclosure reveals that in 12 months the BBC spent £13.8 million on taxi fares, of which £4.5 million was on 'taxis for staff on routine BBC business where permitted by BBC expenses policy'. After costs for guests and other non-BBC personnel are removed I calculate the average annual spend on taxis by each of the BBC's 23,000 employees as £370.
Although BBC Music Magazine is reported to be a candidate for disposal there is no indication yet as to whether the cuts will affect Radio 3. In fact there is an argument that the network could benefit as the leaked report contains the usual corporate crapola about focussing on '... inspiring music ... and events of universal resonance'. But as revealed here a National Audit Office report on the BBC's spend on covering music events is imminent, and it is not only the heretics predicting more bad news. Meanwhile an end of term spirit prevails at Radio 3 with staff rushing round the world in a desperate attempt to spend before the gravy train is derailed. If the music is from Uganda and there is a choice between working from a studio in London or sending the presenter to Uganda (by taxi?) there is absolutely no contest.
If all this makes sad reading, it makes even sadder writing for someone who joined the BBC from university and later had the privilege of learning at Pierre Boulez's feet in the Roundhouse. In 1996 the late and much missed Humphrey Carpenter wrote in his history of the network:
To lose Radio 3's direct dissemination of the arts, its constant promotion and relays of live music around the country, and its discussions of vital issues in intellectual life, would be a real blow to Britain.Repeated own goals by BBC senior management are being exploited by the anti-BBC media and have handed almost certain victory to those who stand to gain from the weakening of the Corporation, notably Rupert Murdoch and the Conservative Party. Cuts at the BBC seem inevitable. The tragedy is they will not be caused by market pressures. They will be caused by what the National Audit Office disguised under the euphemism of 'weak governance', but which is better described in the words used here recently in a not unrelated context - attaining wealth and power.
* It may not always be apparent, but I try to make every post 'add value'. So here are some suggestions on taking this thread further. The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the Third Programme and Radio Three by Humphrey Carpenter is essential reading; not just as a history of the network but also as an insight into the tensions that underlie public service arts broadcasting. It is long out of print, but cheap copies are available for those who move quickly.
* Also still available is one of the great aural documents created by BBC Radio 3. I heard the terminally ill Bruno Maderna conduct Mahler's valedictory Ninth Symphony at the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1972 and it was undoubtedly one of the most devastating musical experiences of my life. The BBC recording of Maderna's searing interpretation of the symphony with the same orchestra at the Festival Hall a year earlier is still available on the CD seen below. If you only buy three Mahler discs this anniversary year this must be one of them. Another is Jascha Horenstein's Fourth Symphony: the third (well Fifth actually) will be the subject of a future post, although I am sure regular readers will guess who the conductor is. But hurry for that Maderna CD, because, like a lot of things mentioned in this post, I suspect it will not be around for much longer. And it is a short path from Bruno Maderna to the days when the BBC Symphony Orchestra excelled in more than Martinů.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Heavy snow provides refreshing opportunity for exercise with shovel in hand - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog)
 The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog) | Heavy snow provides refreshing opportunity for exercise with shovel in hand The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog) Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerBenito Bautista, an employee of LC Supermarket in Morristown, shovels snow from the store's sidewalk as ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
The Werner Icking Music Archive Needs Help
The Werner Icking Music Archive, an archive dedicated to providing thousands upon thousands of free PDF files for musicians, has suddenly (and without notice) lost its server. If anyone has any ideas about providing space for this extremely valuable corner of the internet, please either leave a comment or send me an e-mail message. I will relay the information to editor of the Archive.Here is the message that I received this morning from the editor of the Archive (which is also in the comments):
Since 2007 WIMA has been hosted by DAIMI (The Dept. of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark). Unfortunately this has suddenly stopped. A few hours ago the DAIMI staff, without precedent warning, disabled WIMA's part of the DAIMI web server. The reason is that WIMA is causing a too high load on DAIMI's web servers, threatening the faculty activities.
For the time being WIMA takes up 16G disk space. The January Webalizer visit statistics came out to 2,165,121 total hits, and 1,628,099 total files. Here are the rest of the stats:
Hits per Hour : 2,910 (Average) 11,532 (Max)
Hits per Day : 69,842 10,2820
Files per Day : 52,519 84,621
Pages per Day : 2,164 3,571
Sites per Day: 3,935 6,069
Visits per Day : 1,279 1,436
KBytes per Day : 10,805,387 103,106,373
Perhaps someone reading this might be connected to a university (or know someone at another university) that would appreciate the prestige of hosting such an important website. The WIMA was the first website devoted to making public domain classical music available for free over the internet. It is managed superbly, and it contains a great deal of early music (pre-baroque) that is not part of the Petrucci Library, as well as a great deal of new music by living composers.
Originally from Musical Assumptions, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
Stephen Chatman and Earth Songs
Stephen Chatman and Earth Songs
From Podcast: Sounds New.
Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
Classical music goes modern, with a fun twist - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Classical music goes modern, with a fun twist Sarasota Herald-Tribune 2 by Roberto Sierra mixes avant garde, atonal sounds and Latin dance rhythms. "It is very rousing -- a good opener," said Meyer. ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
For composer, a serpentine route to new opera - Boston Globe
For composer, a serpentine route to new opera Boston Globe The effect on Zhou of moving from the artistic isolation of Beijing to a nucleus of the avant-garde was seismic. “It gave me a turning point,'' he says of ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
Ranking Radiohead: Breaking the top 30 - CultureMap
 CultureMap | Ranking Radiohead: Breaking the top 30 CultureMap I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in avant-garde music, but I personally have never heard something like “Plates,” which somehow, despite the fact ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)
208 :: 26 February 2010 :: Two For OM15
Kidd Jordan: Peppermint Falls, Living Peace, Unity Call, So Often
Kidd Jordan, Tenor Sax; Hamid Drake, percussion; William Parker, Bass
“Palm of Soul”, AUM Fidelity AUM 308 (2006)
Gyan Riley: Mobettabutta, Melismantra, Herbie Moonshine’s Last Dance
Gyan Riley, guitars; Tracy Silverman, electric violin; Scott Amendola, drums; Zakir Hussain, tabla.
“Melismantra”, Agyanamus Music, AM01 (2007)
Kidd Jordan, with William Parker bass, and Warren Smith, drums, will appear at the Other Minds 15 Festival, March 5th
Gyan Riley and his trio will appear at the Other Minds 15 Festival March 6th with a new work commissioned by Other Minds for the Festival.
Originally posted by rchrd from Music From Other Minds, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
The String Quartet, Reinvented - New York Times
 New York Times | The String Quartet, Reinvented New York Times But that repertory, expansive and diverse as it is, still reflects a single musical lineage: that of European classical music as it has been handed down ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
French Roast
Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Oh T-Rex
Add some awesome in the form of a static Canadian dinosaur to your feed reader today kids! (Also suitable for grownups)
Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Glissando Wars: Counterstrike
Alex Ross has a list of his top ten glisses over at Unquiet Thoughts. Most of them are pretty cool although there is one glaring omission. Ladies and gents, spare a thought for Lassus Trombone.
This novelty, composed by Henry Fillmore in 1915, was on one of the $4.99 bargain bin classical discs Miss Mussel bought when she acquired her first hi-fi. It was one of those classical compilations and this piece, along with the Pizzicato Polka, The Skaters’ Waltz and The Radetzky March are directly responsible for getting this bivalve into classical music.
The journey into Aladdin’s cave continued with Tannhauser, 1812, William Tell and Lohengrin, chaperones sourced from a similarly priced Famous Overtures disc.
Without Excelsior Classic Gold, Miss Mussel would most likely be looking forward to the end of her 8th year as a high school history teacher. Instead, she is a sometimes-employed arts journalist who mostly writes books for other people. Maybe she should have splashed out a few extra bucks and bought a Madonna disc instead.
But back to Lassus Trombone. Internet, they are glissing in parts. Top that if you dare.
There are two run-throughs on this video by the same band but in different costumes. If the awkwardness of middle-aged army trombonists trying to be charming/flirtatious/cheeky with the crowd makes your skin crawl, start at 2:25.
This version is a little too relaxed for Miss Mussel’s taste but it is vintage Welk and, as long time readers know, she is an unashamed fan.
Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Riegger/Luening/McPhee
Riegger/Luening/McPhee - Riegger/Luening/McPheeFantasy and Fugue for Orchestra and Organ; Op. 10 (1963)composed by Wallingford Riegger performed by Polish National Radio Orchestra, Jan Krenz - conductor recorded by Polski Nagrania, Poland The FANTASY AND FUGUE was originally designated on the cover of the manuscript score as "Atonal" - but this was scratched out (possibly with the thought ofOriginally from A Closet of Curiosities, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
All Together Now - Strings Magazine
All Together Now Strings Magazine Over the years, the group has performed commissioned works by Peteris Vasks, Iannis Xenakis, and Brett Dean. This February, the ensemble was scheduled to ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
The Village Voice on The Glenn Branca Ensemble
The Village Voice has a feature up on Glenn Branca where he talks about his new album, his long and varied musical career, and how he met his wife by selling her cyberpunk novels, among other things.
Branca has been getting it on since he cemented himself as a Soho staple in the late-'70s, artist-deluged, shithole-era downtown scene: feuding with the East Village No Wavers, schooling fellow guitar-orchestra guru Rhys Chatham, and ultimately subverting both conventional tunings and rock's whole aesthetic with his 1981 classical-music-damaged, histrionic-rock masterpiece, The Ascension. It remains Branca's most popular album, one that profusely bled yesteryear New York's glossy lights and cruddy squalor—a combo original Ascension guitarist Lee Ranaldo undoubtedly took back to the Sonic Youth camp and built a 30-year career (and counting) template on.
Read the whole thing here.
The Glenn Branca Ensemble performs at LPR on February 27th. Get tickets here.
Originally from (Le) Poisson Rouge, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:54 AM | Comments (0)
Markus & Simon Stockhausen, "Neuzeit"
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:53 AM | Comments (0)
Sunday With Our Good Friends:
ANALOG arts ensemble and Monument Piano TrioAn Die Musik
409 N. Charles Street (2nd Fl), Baltimore
Sunday, February 30
3 PM
$20 ($15 Seniors/$10 Students)
PROGRAM
Michael Sheppard, Let Beauty Awake
Jonathan Leshnoff, Song Without Words
James Lee III, Scenes from Eternity's Edge*
Stuart Saunders Smith, Part
Rudolf Kamper, Music for Five Players*
PERSONNEL
Marcia Kamper, flute
Rudolf Kamper, trumpet
Michael Sheppard, piano
Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello
Igor Yuzefovich, violin
Dolf assembled a program of Baltimore music for our show this Sunday with members Monument Piano Trio. It's a nice mix of styles, ranging between the twin poles of the moment: modernism and romanticism.
We're giving the first performances of two new works on Sunday. Dolf's is a texture for the full ensemble. He describes it as contemplative, which surely can't have anything to do with the newborn baby that's been dominating his daily life.
The other premiere was arranged through Monument Trio's agent, who came across a wonderful local composer and professor at Morgan State. James Lee writes a great deal of music inspired by the Bible, and Scenes Upon Eternity’s Edge deals specifically with the eschatological aspects of the Good Book, particularly the books of Revelation and Daniel. Even though he was writing for us, we swear we didn't force him to deal with Michael's battle with the dragon in Revelation. (We promise: no formulas!)
It's always a pleasure to work with Monument, and Sunday's concert is really a windup for the other concerts we'll do at An Die Musik this spring, including a CD release party for Dariusz' solo debut.
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 27, 2010 at 01:53 AM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2010
GVSU's New Music Ensemble: Famous In New York, Still Under The Radar At Home - Michigan Radio
 Michigan Radio | GVSU's New Music Ensemble: Famous In New York, Still Under The Radar At Home Michigan Radio Before that, the group took on a piece called Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich. After recording a CD, the group was invited to perform at 4 am at a ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
CSO's New Star Announces 2010-2011 Season - Chicagoist
 Chicagoist | CSO's New Star Announces 2010-2011 Season Chicagoist Guest conductors will lead the remaining concerts, with CSO regulars Pierre Boulez (who's supposedly on a sabbatical from conducting) and Bernard Haitink ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
Nonesuch Events for the Weekend of February 26–28 - Nonesuch Records (blog)
Nonesuch Events for the Weekend of February 26–28 Nonesuch Records (blog) The first half of the program features the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing works by Ligeti, Wagner, and Ravel. As of this morning's report via Twitter, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
Concordia Choir at Church Street on Tuesday - Knoxville Metro Pulse (blog)
Concordia Choir at Church Street on Tuesday Knoxville Metro Pulse (blog) ... works by Bobby McFerrin, Jean Berger, Alfred Schnittke, Vaclav Nelhybel, Morton Lauridsen, Gyorgy Ligeti, and the choirs music director René Clausen. |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
New Sounds Live - WNYC
New Sounds Live WNYC ETHEL performs compositions by quartet members, as well as works by such luminaries as Julia Wolfe, Phil Kline, John Zorn, Steve Reich, John King, JacobTV, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
Composers Now: An interview with Laura Kaminsky
Composers Now: an Interview with Laura Kaminsky
Composer Laura Kaminsky
Composer, arts administrator, educator, and now, festival curator, Laura Kaminsky is exactly the type of advocate contemporary music needs to ensure its survival. Until recently a dean at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College/SUNY (she remains on the faculty), she’s currently Associate Artistic Director at Symphony Space. Since her arrival, Kaminsky has done a great deal to enhance the music programming at the venue.
“Symphony Space has long been known for its literary events. But in recent years we’ve been hard at work to create an increased role for music in our programming: both in terms of performances and in our educational activities. We’re trying to create a home at Symphony Space for all different kinds of music. I’m particularly pleased with our incorporation of Latin American music into various projects. We are lucky to have both classical composer Tania León and jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra involved in our programs.”
Despite the currently gloomy economic times, she’s helped to organize an ambitious weeklong undertaking spotlighting contemporary music: Composers Now. It all started with a conversation she had with León.
“Tania pointed out that poets and playwrights generally have a much greater public presence than composers. Oftentimes performers become the focus of an event and, apart from their music, we don’t get to know the composers too well. So, we decided to help to organize a festival that gives composers in New York a public face.”
The Composers Now festival has involved dozens of presenters, ensembles, and organizations. And Kaminsky is quick to eschew any notions of single-minded leadership, remarking instead that, “This was very much a team effort. I lived for a time in West Africa and I learned there that it really does take a village. The idea of Composers Now took shape gradually and somewhat informally, beginning as a series of conversations over lunch or a cup of coffee with various area presenters and arts professionals.”
“It seemed as if it was just as we were getting started that the economy took a drastic turn for the worse. For a little while, our informal group of organizers was reluctant to broach the issue, but eventually we started to talk openly about the funding challenges we were all experiencing; about being nervous about the future of our organizations and of this project.”
“I learned something very valuable from those conversations: when people trust each other enough to speak the truth, great things can happen. Once we had had voiced our concerns, we were able to set about finding ways to make Composers Now a reality. By getting creative, we found a solution. The organizers were able to find a week in the ’09-’10 season when we could all commit to programming contemporary music or involving composers in some way.”
Kaminsky and company didn’t look at this as an event exclusively open to composers of concert music. In likeminded spirit to her work at Symphony Space, Composers Now has welcomed a wide range of styles and genres, including Latin American music and jazz. Within the confines of its contemporary classical programming, the composers highlighted have been from a similarly catholic array of styles, ranging from a concert by ‘downtowners’ Bang on a Can to a Composers Portrait of Benet Casablancas at Miller Theatre.
“If all goes well, we want Composers Now to stretch beyond the boundaries of New York City in coming years. I don’t see why this shouldn’t be a nationwide program that raises awareness of composers with events throughout the United States.”
If a village’s worth of arts presenters can achieve what Composers Now 2010 has done in NYC, imagine what arts organizations across the whole country could do?
Originally posted by Christian Carey from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
A music director on the rise - Financial Times
A music director on the rise Financial Times Today Van Zweden, at 49, is music director of three orchestras – the Dallas Symphony, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Sorabji on programme music
I well remember my own flattered astonishment when some good simple soul told me, after listening to my own Jardin Parfumé, of the various rustic sounds he said he heard therein; the brook, the bees, the birds doing all the things you expect birds, bees and brooks to do in their punishable moments. I would not forebear to ask the good soul if he also heard the rich purée d'epinard plop of the cows emptying their bowels, those least - so admirably least - costive of creatures, whose evacuations, performed with such nonchalance and brio, and full-bowelled ease, are such a shining example to the constipated idiots who live on and by them.Kaikhosru Sorabji writing in his 1947 book Mi contra fa: The Immoralisings of a Machievellian Musician. Geoffrey Douglas Madge's recording of Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum is available as a download for £13.98 from amazon.co.uk, which is quite a bargain for 5 hours 43 minutes and 23 seconds of music. My John Ogden post is the obvious link. But why be obvious? - so instead I'm suggesting visiting another Jardin Parfumé.
Sorabji photo via bach-cantatas.com. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic mark four decades of music making - Strings Magazine
The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic mark four decades of music making Strings Magazine Over the years, the group has performed commissioned works by Peteris Vasks, Iannis Xenakis, and Brett Dean. This February, the ensemble was scheduled to ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, UAB Piano Series to Present Shai Wosner - UAB News
 UAB News | March 21, UAB Piano Series to Present Shai Wosner UAB News With imaginative programming that communicates his intellectual curiosity, Wosner performs a wide-ranging repertoire from Mozart and Beethoven to Ligeti and ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
The Week Ahead | Feb. 28 — Mar. 6 - New York Times
 New York Times | The Week Ahead | Feb. 28 — Mar. 6 New York Times Xenakis was an electronic music pioneer, and the evening's music will include both live and taped scores, including the appropriately titled ... |
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For David Soyer
David Soyer, the longtime cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet and a legendary figure in American chamber music, passed away yesterday, in New York, one day after his eighty-seventh birthday. I heard the sad news from Frank Salomon, of Marlboro Music, who noted that Soyer’s final public performances took place at Marlboro last summer. Soyer was born in Philadelphia, in 1923, and studied with Diran Alexanian, Emanuel Feuermann, and Pablo Casals. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1942, under the baton of Eugene Ormandy. He came to Marlboro in 1961 and three years later formed the Guarneri with three fellow Marlboro musicians: Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, and Michael Tree. He remained with the quartet until 2001, and rejoined them for farewell performances at the end of the 2008-2009 season.
I wrote about Soyer in my Marlboro article last year, marveling at his vigorous, thoughtful, often wisecracking collaborations with players who were sometimes sixty or sixty-five years younger than he. The best way to remember him is simply to listen to him play. Here, courtesy of Marlboro, is a recording of the slow movement of Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2, with Mitsuko Uchida, piano, and Soovin Kim, violin. It comes from a performance that took place on July 13, 2008.
Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
New director at CSO: Beginning of Muti era - Chicago Tribune
New director at CSO: Beginning of Muti era Chicago Tribune Conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez will interrupt his sabbatical season to conduct two weeks of subscription concerts in November and December. ... |
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Berkshire Symphony Orchestra to Perform “Ironic Juxtapositions” - iBerkshires.com
Berkshire Symphony Orchestra to Perform “Ironic Juxtapositions” iBerkshires.com For listeners who can relate to the music of Stockhausen, Xenakis or Birtwistle, Edgar Varèse is a inescapable reference. Just as audiences for classical ... |
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NY Philharmonic's Next Young People's Concert Takes the Stage, 3/27 - Broadway World
NY Philharmonic's Next Young People's Concert Takes the Stage, 3/27 Broadway World ... closely with and was assistant to music director Daniel Barenboim, principal guest conductor Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, and other visiting artists. ... |
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Frédéric and Jimi and the ways of the hand
In this Chopin year, we're going to be hearing a lot about idiomatic instrumental composition, and in particular, the ways in which the physical, tactile act of playing interact with aural considerations. Most of the talk will, of course, be about the keyboard, from Bach (see here) to Chopin and on to Bartók and Ligeti (tactility is also a hot topic among the complexers). But here is also a new article about the complex handedness of Jim Hendrix and his choice of a left-handed guitar.*
_____
* Playing "wrong-handed" is a minor fascination of mine. From time to time, one hears about pianos with inverted (right-to-left bass-to-treble) keyboards, which can be emulated with a good midi keyboard and are, at turns, frustrating and fascinating to play. Also, there is the example of the violinist Rudolph Kolisch, a close associate of Schoenberg, who played left-handed, which offered an acoustic advantage in quartet playing and some advantage in teaching as well. Noticing that some old recorders came with alternative seventh holes (one of which could be filled with wax), I once spent some time learning to play with the hands exchanged, an exercise which seem to increase both physical and mental agility.
Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
Top Ten Glissandos
I’ll end Xenakis Week with an unscientific, Letterman-style take on one of the composer’s favorite devices, the glissando. The sound of an instrument or a voice sliding from one note to another has an ambiguous effect: depending on the context, it can suggest jazzy liberation, wartime destruction, otherworldly realms, or primitive rituals. Inevitably, making a list of favorite glissandos is a deeply personal matter, and I expect that my choices will spur intense debate, especially on trombone forums. Nonetheless, here goes:
1. Alexander Zemlinsky, “Die Seejungfrau” (1902-3):
ondon).
2. Stravinsky, “The Rite of Spring” (1911-13):
3. Kid Ory, “Ory’s Creole Trombone” (1922):
a Spike’s Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra, on “Kid Ory” (Membran).
4. Gershwin, “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924):
with Benny Goodman, clarinet (Iron Needle).
5. Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936):
(RCA).
6. Eduard Tubin, Symphony No. 6 (1952-54):
Symphony (BIS).
7. Xenakis, “Metastasis” (1953-54):
ymphony (col legno).
8. Nina Simone singing “Strange Fruit” (1965):
(RCA).
9. Led Zeppelin, “Whole Lotta Love” (1969):
.
10. Michael Giacchino, “Eyeland,” from “Lost” (2004):
ymphony (Varese Sarabande).
For maximum effect, press all the buttons in quick succession.
Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
Lippel to bring diverse, revered guitar concert - Bowdoin Orient
Lippel to bring diverse, revered guitar concert Bowdoin Orient The audience can expect to hear work from composers as varied as Bach, Elliott Carter, Toru Takemitsu and Isaac Albeniz. Among the present-day work that ... |
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Massive Arduino-and-solenoid percussion array controlled by a Wiimote
One human, three machines, rhythm.
Originally posted by jeff from new music reblog plus, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)
What our critics are listening to - RocNow
What our critics are listening to RocNow The CSO musicians add bold color to this classically framed work, and conductor Pierre Boulez, a modern music master, conducts this work with refinement ... |
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Sextet x 2: eighth blackbird, Curtis group play together | Philadelphia ... - Philadelphia Inquirer
Sextet x 2: eighth blackbird, Curtis group play together | Philadelphia ... Philadelphia Inquirer ... its modern-music affiliations. An important milestone, no doubt, is what ended Wednesday's joint concert with the Curtis 20/21 ensemble: Steve Reich's ... |
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Why everyone wants to #save6music - The Guardian (blog)
Why everyone wants to #save6music The Guardian (blog) But 6 Music can. It works on similar lines to something like Radio 3, which unlike Classic FM, can feature Xenakis concerts alongside more well-known ... |
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Stravinsky: Pulcinella; Symphony in Three Movements; Four Etudes - The Guardian
 The Guardian | Stravinsky: Pulcinella; Symphony in Three Movements; Four Etudes The Guardian When it comes to conducting Stravinsky's neoclassical works, Pierre Boulez has always been selective, but the ballet Pulcinella and the Symphony in Three ... |
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Northrop Music Presents Swedish Radio Choir, 2/26 - Broadway World
Northrop Music Presents Swedish Radio Choir, 2/26 Broadway World ... to be the ideal instrument for their music: composers such as Ingvar Lidholm, Sven-Erik Bäck and Lars Edlund; György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki. ... |
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Sextet x 2: eighth blackbird, Curtis group play together - Philadelphia Inquirer
Sextet x 2: eighth blackbird, Curtis group play together Philadelphia Inquirer ... its modern-music affiliations. An important milestone, no doubt, is what ended Wednesday's joint concert with the Curtis 20/21 ensemble: Steve Reich's ... |
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Best Bets: A new focus on climate change, Bach's big visit and more - Denver Post
Best Bets: A new focus on climate change, Bach's big visit and more Denver Post ... the LYS presents an eclectic concert of classic and contemporary music. The program includes Pachelbel's Canon in D, as well as a minimalist Steve Reich ... |
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Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role - Forbes
Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role Forbes And although conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez is on sabbatical most of the season, he will return for two weeks of concerts in November and December. ... |
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Seattle Chamber Players' 'Icebreaker' is a 20th-anniversary party - Seattle Times
Seattle Chamber Players' 'Icebreaker' is a 20th-anniversary party Seattle Times Yannis Kyriakides' "Satellites" is an atmospheric suite for chamber instruments and "soundtrack," calling to mind György Ligeti's microtonal work and ... |
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New works and familiar faces to mark Muti's debut CSO season - Chicago Classical Review
New works and familiar faces to mark Muti's debut CSO season Chicago Classical Review Rands' new work, Danza Petrificada, which Muti conducts Oct. 14-17, is inspired by Mexican folk music and the poetry of Octavio Paz. ... |
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Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role - Forbes
Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role Forbes By FN D'ALESSIO , 02.25.10, 07:26 PM EST CHICAGO -- Conductor Riccardo Muti won't take over as 10th music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra until ... |
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February 25, 2010
Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura Moves from One Musical Extreme to Another on Two New ... - All About Jazz
Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura Moves from One Musical Extreme to Another on Two New ... All About Jazz On “Kaleidoscopic," every sound is grist for this band's mill, with references to the blues, art rock, Stockhausen, free jazz, European free improvisation, ... |
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Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role - Washington Post
Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role Washington Post And although conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez is on sabbatical most of the season, he will return for two weeks of concerts in November and December. ... |
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Two Young Pianists, Forging Connections - New York Times
 New York Times | Two Young Pianists, Forging Connections New York Times ... Ligeti, Mozart and Satie sound similar, I think Mr. Greilsammer can claim success at showing the connections among seemingly disparate music. |
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The Oberlin Conservatory of Music Awarded - eJazzNews
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music Awarded eJazzNews OBERLIN, OHIO (February 25, 2010)—The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a recipient of the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the United ... |
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Dance Listings - New York Times
Dance Listings New York Times Mr. Veggetti, the Italian choreographer, having already successfully tackled Xenakis's “Oresteia,” now unveils a program of dance set to music underlining ... |
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O Sacred Head, Now Wounded - deconstruction begins
This is a work in progress.Play it:
Subscribe here:
This still needs a lot of work, but the basic outline is done. This piece has 63 chords, compared the the previous one with only 37. The specific deconstruction technique I'm using doesn't scale very well: it takes lots of keystrokes to do each manipulation. The basic idea is allowing a chord to arpeggiate for as long as it wants to before moving to the next one. Scored for woodwind quartet and mallet instruments for now.
Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
We Get Stacks and Stacks of Letters
Hi Jerry,
Wanted to share two recent interviews:
1. Paul York, cellist and professor at the University of Louisville, has a new CD (Cello Vision – Centaur 2989) featuring new music by Stefan Freund, Aaron J. Kernis, Steve Rouse, Frederick Speck, Paul Brink and Marc Satterwhite. The Kernis is a world-premiere recording of Ballad for solo cello and seven cellos. Freund’s Toccata is also a premiere recording. The interview is here.
2. George Tsontakis was in town last week for a world premiere with the Louisville Orchestra. Impetuous was commissioned for the LO by a fellow Yaddo board member, Nana Lampton. The interview with George is here.
One more note, you can hear the premiere broadcast of Impetuous by George Tsontakis on Sunday, February 28 at 6pm (EST) online at www.wuol.org.
Hope all is well!
Daniel
Daniel Gilliam, Station Manager
Classical 90.5 – Louisville’s Fine Arts Station
Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 814-6540
Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Am I Getting Overexposed Yet?
My new book was mentioned today in the New Yorker, and my music in the New York Times. The latter sort of implied that my Disklavier music is "silly." Personally I think classical music should lighten up and indulge a joke now and then, but I'm finding that when you write a humorous piece, people are just disturbed by it. I guess it's back to solemn and portentous for me.Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Classical Music/Opera Listings - New York Times
 New York Times | Classical Music/Opera Listings New York Times Among the other works is Harold Meltzer's “Brion,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for music last year. On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon the ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Muti call: New CSO leader opens with busy fanfare - Chicago Sun-Times
Muti call: New CSO leader opens with busy fanfare Chicago Sun-Times HAITINK AND BOULEZ: The CSO's two beloved and respected elder statesmen, current principal conductor Bernard Haitink and conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez, ... |
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Muti's role in the new CSO season - Chicago Sun-Times
Muti's role in the new CSO season Chicago Sun-Times Unusually, Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director-designate Riccardo Muti played a role in Thursday's announcement of non-CSO programs ... |
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WREX.com – Rockford's News LeaderRiccardo Muti announces next CSO season - WREX-TV
WREX.com – Rockford's News LeaderRiccardo Muti announces next CSO season WREX-TV AP News AP - February 25, 2010 2:44 PM ET CHICAGO (AP) - Conductor Riccardo Muti (MOOT'-ee) will begin his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony ... |
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The Muti Era Takes Shape in Chicago - New York Times (blog)
The Muti Era Takes Shape in Chicago New York Times (blog) Riccardo Muti will open his term as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with a concert in Millennium Park on Sept. ... |
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Young: Further Secret Origins
Katherine Young 
Further Secret Origins
Porter Records
- Terra Incognita
- Patricia Highsmith
- Elevation
- For Astronauts, for Travelers
- Relief
- Some People Say That She Doesn’t Exist
- Orbis Teritus
All works composed and performed on the bassoon by Katherine Young
“Rough, rugged, in your face bassoon playing” might seem humorous to the uninitiated in regards to the facility and sonic capacity of the bassoon but this disc is one of only a few discs that left me totally entranced by the sounds of a solo monophonic instrument. Though frequently augmented with electronics, Katherine Young’s solo bassoon music does more than rock. It f-king kicks ass. And takes names.
Young’s music is well in tune with the extended sets of sounds and colors available on the instrument. Her performances are powerful and compelling. Most of the works are edgy, dissonant, rich with multiphonics and thick fat eruptions of sound. There are also tracks which feature more expressive, engaging, and haunting performances.
If you thought Stravinsky’s high bassoon writing was “otherworldly,” then you have to hear this. Most of the disc works as a cycle since the heartbeat that emerges towards the end of the first track becomes the foundational support that carries everything through the track “Relief.”
“Some People Say That She Doesn’t Exist” is a break from the aggressive and tense. This multiple basson piece is a sullen, tender, tonal, and introspective work. The final track is an echo to the rich timbres of the more aggressive music but in a more muted and meditative manner. “Orbis Tertius” is the perfect end for this disc.
Throughout the CD, whether hard or soft, edgy or tender, Young’s tone is rich and resonant with overtones every bit as interesting as the fundamentals. If you want to hear an orchestra of sound from a single bassoon, this is not a disc to miss.
Originally posted by Jay Batzner from CD Reviews, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Face to face with jazz legends
We Want Miles at La Cité de la Musique in Paris was packed when we visited it recently. Those are some of the graphics above and the multi-media Miles memorobilia was stunning, but the average age of those packing into the exhibition was even more stunning. There are not many countries where you see would young people paying 8 euros (11 US dollars) to queue for a celebration of a jazz musician who died before many of them were born.
That is French bebop pianist René Urtreger above, and I was particularly pleased to find an extended video interview with him as one of the We Want Miles exhibits. René Urtreger studied classical piano before making his reputation in the famous Club Saint-Germain on Paris' Left Bank with his Bud Powell influenced style. He has played with many jazz greats including Miles Davis, and he recorded the the soundtrack to Louis Malle's film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) with Miles' band in 1957.
René Urtreger has also worked with many great French jazz musicans, usually as a trio. We saw him do an open-air set at the 2001 Bergerac Music Festival in the Dordogne, that is the ticket below. At the same Festival we also say Kenneth Weiss play the Goldbergs en plein air accompanied by dusk birdsong - I am sure the ghost of Messiaen was lurking in the shadows somewhere.
You will see from the ticket that René Urtreger was playing with Pierre Michelot, sadly no longer with us, on bass and Daniel Humair, no mean visual artist as well as a great drummer. These three consumate musicians comprised the legendary Trio Hum - Humair/Urtreger/Michelot. Below is the beautifully packaged 1999 Sketch triple CD set which brought together Trio Hum's 1960 album recorded live in the Club Saint-Germain and their 1979 and 1999 studio albums complete with original sleeve covers and session photos. Now deleted this HUM tribute is fetching good prices among collectors but mine is not for sale!
René Urtreger is living proof that youth is a state of mind, not a time of life. Born in 1934 he is still bebopping and in recent years has released two excellent solo albums. His 2001 album Onirica, seen below, is one of my favourite 'feel good' CDs - superb uplifting jazz piano with no hidden agendas and guaranteed to bring a smile to the face at anytime. It was another Sketch release, but is again deleted. Although the Sketch catalogue seems to be decimated René Urtreger is still well represented by Editions Carlyne Music, a French Warner sub-label. If you want to sample some superb jazz piano try their René Urtreger - Jazzman album which is available from Amazon France for 12.45 euros as a disc or 9.99 euros as a download.
But the music is a far better advocate than my words. This video from René Urtreger's 75th birthday gig at the Duc des Lombards club in Paris brings you face to face with a true jazz legend.
ttp://www.overgrownpath.com/2009/09/music-exists-within-silence.html">here.
All CDs were bought by me at retail as were the We Want Miles tickets. René Urtreger photo is from the Onirica booklet. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
No listing of EMI's great recordings
Someone clearly misread my post. I did not mean list the building. I meant list the great EMI recordings made there.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
Liverpool Playhouse to stage dance double bill as part of LEAP 2010 - Click Liverpool
Liverpool Playhouse to stage dance double bill as part of LEAP 2010 Click Liverpool ... composer Steve Reich's 'Six Marimbas' and a new score commissioned from Percossa – the group responsible for creating the unforgettable music for Peeled ... |
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Northrop Dance Presents The Suzanne Farrell Ballet 3/12, 3/13 - Broadway World
Northrop Dance Presents The Suzanne Farrell Ballet 3/12, 3/13 Broadway World 15 (1956): Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Divertimento No. 15 was choreographed for eight principal dancers, five women and three men, with an ensemble ... |
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The Pace of Being a Composer
By Dan ViscontiA function of my particular circumstances (composing mostly acoustic music for live performances) is that after a huge, tense period of composing in which my mind is primed, there is usually a long hiatus (sometimes as much as a year) before rehearsals, which frequently tend to be not much before the premiere date.
Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Xenakis at the Mall
Xenakis Week here at Unquiet Thoughts continues with some additional observations by the master percussionist Steven Schick, whose book “The Percussionist’s Art” gave me as much to think about as any musical text I’ve read in the past few years. In my column, I speculated that Schick’s riveting rendition of Xenakis’s “Psappha” might easily draw a crowd on a street corner or subway platform, whether or not anyone had heard the composer’s name. In fact, as Schick told me, he has often taken the work outside conventional concert-hall settings:
I’ve played both “Psappha” and Stockhausen’s “Zyklus” easily over a hundred of times in factories, libraries, mental hospitals, retirement homes, and at a shopping mall. I had only one unpleasant experience on those tours, at a construction site on the day they finished a big apartment project. By the time I got there the workers were well into beer-drinking and oyster-roasting. I played Stockhausen, which didn’t make them very happy, so I just passed out all of my instruments and we had an hour-long drum circle—plus guiro, cowbell, and log drum—instead of a performance. I’ve also played “Psappha” and “Rebonds” outdoors a number of times, once for Xenakis at the Salk Institute here in La Jolla [Schick is the music director of the La Jolla Symphony] and another memorable time in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where the big bass-drum moment in the middle of the piece ricocheted off canyon walls and the coyotes howled.
Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
Shout-out, South Carolina!
Columbia’s own Southern Exposure New Music Series and xMUSE (University of South Carolina’s Experimental Music Studio, directed by Reginald Bain) combine forces once again to present an evening of genre-bending music and technology. The Saturday, February 27th, 7:30 p.m concert features Odd Appetite, the New York based duo of performers/composers Ha-Yang Kim (cello) and Nathan Davis (percussion) in works for musically interactive computer software, spatial speaker configurations, amplified triangles, microtonal bells, drums, tuned aluminum pipes, and a de-tuned and amplified cello with stomp boxes and electronic effects, all played with dazzling virtuosity and passion. In addition to music by Davis and Kim, Odd Appetite will also perform Radiohead’s “Like Spinning Plates” in an arrangement that uses electronic loopers, wine glasses, and whirly tubes.
The concert also features Lois V. Vierk’s Go Guitars for five electric guitars, influenced by traditional Japanese court music, and Reginald Bain’s Jovian Images, inspired by NASA photographs of planets and performed by renowned saxophone virtuoso Susan Fancher. Admission is free (USC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly St.), but early seating recommended.
Originally posted by Steve Layton from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
Male vocal group to perform at BGSU - Port Clinton News Herald
Male vocal group to perform at BGSU Port Clinton News Herald Inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2008, Chanticleer was also named the 2008 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America; the New Yorker ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
Gershwin Films Schoenberg - Silent Movie
From the YouTube info: In this 1937 silent home movie, mostly shot by Gershwin himself, can be seen Arnold Schoenberg, and his wife Gertrud, Gertrud's brother Rudi Kolisch (of the Kolisch string quartet) and Doris Vidor and a few brief glimpses of Gershwin himself. The musical extract accompanying the video is the beginning of Schoenbergs String Quartet no.4 Op.37, written in 1936, in a 1937 recording by the Kolisch Quartet that was sponsored by George Gershwin. Gershwin and Schoenberg were also tennis partners in Hollywood, and this film was taken on Gershwin's tennis court at Roxbury Drive, Beverley Hills. Also included on this short video is a photograph of Gershwin at work on his famous oil painting portrait of Schoenberg, accompanied by Schoenbergs moving tribute to Gershwin recorded July 12th 1937, the day after Gershwins untimely death at the age of only 38.
Originally posted by jeff from new music reblog plus, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
3 Music Biz Mindsets I Learned From My 3 Year Old
The other day I had the pleasure to spend the afternoon with my son Elijah.
After hanging out and playing with him for a while, the scene turned pretty nasty when the talk of a lollipop surfaced.
Now, anyone who has kids knows very well that when the discussion around candy hit’s the table, you know you’re in for a tough negotiation. They usually nag until that sugar stick is firmly wedged in their mouth without interruption.
Being that it was late in the afternoon and dinner was approaching, I had to pull out my deceptive ninja tricks to keep him from wanting that lollipop he was screaming so loudly for.
As you might imagine, as the standoff continued, the scene got pretty messy. It wasn’t until twenty minutes after a barrage of screams and cry’s, that I finally let him have his way.
Finally, as silence and calm hit our living room once again, I was able to breathe calmly again and re-gain my thoughts. I started watching him in his delight eating his lollipop and started thinking about the whole situation in a little more detail.
Other than realizing that my son is one heck of a negotiator, there were a few other thoughts I had that I think might help you and your band in those moments of panic and doubt though the up’s and down’s of your music career.
1. Never Take “NO” For An Answer
In this business persistence is everything.
I know so many bands that get disheartened by one sour review or one agent who doesn’t like them or one radio station that will never play their music.
Remember this fact and be inspired by it – The Beatles were turned down by every single major record label before they released their first single.
The Offspring recorded a bunch of albums and toured for ten years before having their breakthrough album Smash. TEN YEARS!!
The point is that there are so many times and cases where you just don’t know where or when that big moment is going to arrive and the key is to never stop and never ever, for any reason take NO for an answer.
You just have to keep going, just like my son, who’s father eventually caved in and gave him the lollipop.
Back in the day, our band Noise Addict sent our music to a radio station. We got a letter back and the first sentence they wrote was –
We think your band sucks!
Aside from being totally funny and comical, we took it with a grain of salt and kept going. About five years later that very radio station were playing our song on high rotation.
Once when there was a big push on that album, we took that letter in to them and had a good laugh about it. But the point is that getting a No or a You Suck should only strengthen your resolve, just like with my son persistence to get his lollipop.
2. Find That Little Wedge or Opening and Milk It
When my son went to war for his lollipop, he didn’t just kick and hit me until he got what he wanted (three year olds today are much smarter than that), He pulled reverse psychology tricks on me. He got his little sister to gang up on me and he also started running around the house making a mess until I conceded.
In short, he kept working all the angles until he found that little wedge that caused me to cave in – screaming and crying!
I’m not sure about you but one thing I cannot handle is the constant crying of a kid. It drives me crazy. So after five minutes of screaming and crying, his wedge of opportunity opened and delivered him exactly what he wanted.
The same holds true with the music business. There are so many ways to penetrate and get to the right people in this business. The first trick is to really know and understand who your prospect actually is. This is really a whole process in itself.
Once you’ve covered this ground, then it’s a matter of understanding how to pull their strings and find their soft spots. Finding that wedge or opening to lure them in and get whatever it is your looking for from them.
In most cases, it might just be the need to have a great story up your sleeve to suck them into your world or being able to rattle of some compelling statistics about your band to prick their ears up, but the key is to be able to find that wedge and milk it, just like my little boy did.
3 Frequency Frequency Frequency
I guess the most frustrating part of dealing with children sometimes is that when they don’t get what they want, they keep going at you like a broken record, and I think we all know that the concept of frequency really works.
When a message is thrown at you over and over again in a concentrated period of time, the chances of escaping is very hard.
Frequency works!
All successful ad agencies will tell you that a consumer needs to hear a message at least eight times until they’ll act or respond.
I guess for bands, it means that to really create any sort of ground swell you must be out there working all the angles in your music scene so potential fans and industry insiders cannot avoid you.
Play play play. Even if it’s to no-one at first. Even if it’s at your local library BBQ. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that your creating some sort of frequency and consistency.
Email your fans once a week, post on your facebook page every few days with updates. Whatever it is, just keep doing it….. If anything, just for the sake of frequency.
Once an A&R guy sees you in three or four places that he himself is already prowling for new acts, or hears about you from two of his trusted friends or see’s you in a trade journal he trusts, you’ll start to see how the tides turn and the interest in your band will take shape.
Frequency for your band’s profile also involves understanding the different types of “media” (radio, TV, online, print etc) that are out there and knowing how to get free exposure and frequency from them.
Again, there is so much to be said about each topic, however leveraging these “medias” and creating frequency is so important to help attract industry attention and build your fan base.
So there you have it, three innovative thoughts around my super stressful Sunday afternoon session with my son Elijah. I do have to say though that he’s not half as bad as I made out.
If his music career will be anything like his desire for lollipops, you’ll all be hearing much more about him very soon!
By Daniel Kohn
Check out my blog - www.AskKohnny.com
Check out my new book - Inside The Music Biz
Originally posted by daniel kohn from Music Think Tank (primary) RSS, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
3 Southern Miss students to perform with symphony - Hattiesburg American
3 Southern Miss students to perform with symphony Hattiesburg American The piece, which he will reprise Thursday, is one of the few lyrical pieces in the saxophone's typically avant-garde and atonal classical repertoire, ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
Review: Yoko Ono at Noise Pop - San Jose Mercury News (blog)
 SFist | Review: Yoko Ono at Noise Pop San Jose Mercury News (blog) ... John Lennon and her presumed role in the breakup of the Beatles, and it's grown synonymous with artsy (many would say unlistenable) avant-garde music. ... Live: Yoko Ono Plastic Band at the Fox Theater |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
Contemporary, classical jazz coming to GWU stage - Shelby Star
Contemporary, classical jazz coming to GWU stage Shelby Star BOILING SPRINGS – The Gardner-Webb University Jazz Ensemble will perform a concert featuring a combination of contemporary and classical jazz music on ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
Composer Richter helps define modern classical genre - UTM Pacer
Composer Richter helps define modern classical genre UTM Pacer He co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus, where he commissioned and performed works for 10 years. The ensemble produced five CDs, ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
Ann Patchett's novel 'Bel Canto' has inspired a new string quartet by Elena Ruehr - San Jose Mercury News
Ann Patchett's novel 'Bel Canto' has inspired a new string quartet by Elena Ruehr San Jose Mercury News Very cool and nutty guy, kind of avant-garde." As a girl, Ruehr was a church organist and played flute in her high school pep band. ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
'Shutter Island' soundtrack packed with contemporary classical music - Baltimore Sun (blog)
 MTV.com | 'Shutter Island' soundtrack packed with contemporary classical music Baltimore Sun (blog) And I'm talking seriously contemporary, as in fabulously atmospheric pieces by John Cage (including "Music for Marcel Duchamp"), Morton Feldman (the ... Critic's notebook: 'Shutter Island' as a new-music haven Crime and insanity collide on 'Shutter Island' Shutter Island |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
Reich on Reich
“If you looked at the tax returns of every composer in America, somewhere between 90 and 95% would be at universities. And I’m not looking down on those – it’s merely the job that’s most open to you. But people say you teach during the day and you’re free at so-and-so, but there’s a certain energy that goes into teaching people, it seems to me…and if you don’t give them that energy, then you’re immoral. And if you do give them that energy, then you’re wiped out. Because there’s only so much energy anyone has.From Steve Reich talking at the Red Bull Music Academy. With thanks to Future Radio Station Manager Tom Buckham for the heads-up. As well as being the boss Tom spins the discs in the station's electronica, downbeat, electro and electronic music programme. That interview links nicely to my recent Contemporary music at the Reich price post.
Photo credit FactMag. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
Quatuor Bozzini breaks musical boundaries - Straight.com
Quatuor Bozzini breaks musical boundaries Straight.com Jazz innovator Charlie Parker loved Igor Stravinsky's music and avant-classical figurehead György Ligeti made a close study of Thelonious ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
'Shutter Island' soundtrack packed with contemporary classical music - Baltimore Sun (blog)
 Baltimore Sun (blog) | 'Shutter Island' soundtrack packed with contemporary classical music Baltimore Sun (blog) ... Cage (including "Music for Marcel Duchamp"), Morton Feldman (the otherworldly "Rothko Chapel 2"), Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Gyorgy Ligeti, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
K is for Kaleidoscope
Variety, contrast, change. The liveliness of music is bound up with dynamism. La Monte Young is fond of saying that "contrast is for those who can't compose", but with all due respect to my teacher, contrast is essential — Young's own music is full of contrast — and the critical issue for composers is management of contrast, within the scale and scope of a given musical environment. To my ears, there is more dynamic variety within much Q'in or clavichord music — instruments which can never rise above the dynamic level of piano — than is available on the best made and played Steinway. The absolute range of dynamic contrast may be smaller, but the degree of differentiation, the scaling within that range, is much greater by being much more refined.* Even the most disciplined performance of Young's Any Integer (for Henry Flynt), a piece in which a single piano cluster is repeated as precisely as possible for a number (often a large number) of time soon becomes totally engaging through the discovery of the smallest possible contrasts.
*****
Variety, contrast, and change can come from within or without. The most familiar childrens' kaleidoscope reflects colored stones or pieces of glass or plastic or paper onto parallel mirrors sharing a viewing tube with the objects. The relative positions of the objects can be changed by moving them within their chamber, sometimes by shaking, sometimes by turning, but the total range of available shapes and colors is contained. But there is also the teleidoscope, a variation on the kaleidoscope, in which, instead of objects contained within the tube, has a lens and an open view, allowing the internal mirrors to reflect images from outside. It might be useful to think of contrast in music functioning with a similar distinction.
Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
'Shutter Island' soundtrack packed with contemporary classical music - Baltimore Sun (blog)
 The Guardian (blog) | 'Shutter Island' soundtrack packed with contemporary classical music Baltimore Sun (blog) And I'm talking seriously contemporary, as in fabulously atmospheric pieces by John Cage (including "Music for Marcel Duchamp"), Morton Feldman (the ... Critic's notebook: 'Shutter Island' as a new-music haven |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Music review: Jaga Jazzist, “One-Armed Bandit” - Advance Titan
Music review: Jaga Jazzist, “One-Armed Bandit” Advance Titan “Toccata,” for example, is a brilliant perversion of Steve Reich's “Music For 18 Musicians,” a minimalist-classical masterpiece. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Orchestral maneuvers - Colorado Springs Independent
 Colorado Springs Independent | Orchestral maneuvers Colorado Springs Independent Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Orchestra, which is on the verge of bankruptcy as it searches for a new music director, is rolling out an outreach campaign ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
New Sounds Live
I really enjoyed Q2’s broadcast tonight of New Sounds Live, a concert at Merkin Hall by the Bang on a Can All Stars that featured works by Nik Bartsch, Oscar Bettison, Christine Southworth, Michael Nyman, and David Longstreth. The first in a hopefully ongoing series of collaborations between Q2 and Merkin Hall, it was also a featured event in this week’s Composers Now festival.
I particularly enjoyed the Bettison work, The Afflicted Girl, in part because it’s quite affecting; but it also helps that I was able to study in advance and follow along with a perusal score sent over by the kind folks at Boosey. Funded by BoaC’s Peoples’ Commissioning Fund, the piece is what Bettison calls an “anti-pastorale.” Its based on a quote from Peter Ackroyd’s London: the Biography. It describes an afflicted girl frequently found in a busy thoroughfare, seemingly oblivious to the cacophony around her. Or, as in Bettison’s posits in his piece, perhaps she found a kind of music amidst the chaos.
Clangor is Bettison’s daily bread: many of his works employ junk metal percussion. The Afflicted Girl involves copious percussion batteries, prepared piano, a keyboard tuned a quarter tone flat, taped echoes of the ensemble, plenty of electric guitar harmonics, and a Shapey-esque scordatura tuning of the cellos C string – down to G for rumbled slackening. What’s more, all the players double on bicycle bells!
Alternately assaultive and contemplative, rhythmically charged and, briefly, eerily reposeful, its a demanding, challenging, harrowing, and memorable work.
Bang on a Can. Photo: Christine Southworth
Sad you missed out on the Q2 broadcast? Fear not: the performance will be featured on a March broadcast of New Sounds.
Originally posted by Christian Carey from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 05:10 AM | Comments (0)
A sonic kinship - Los Angeles Times
 Los Angeles Times | A sonic kinship Los Angeles Times For "The Getty Address," Longstreth named Austrian composer György Sándor Ligeti (whose work has enjoyed mainstream exposure in such films as "Eyes Wide ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
Getty's Foundation: Dirty Projectors Play Disney Hall - LA Weekly
Getty's Foundation: Dirty Projectors Play Disney Hall LA Weekly If music can be seen as a running conversation — as knowledge stacked up and passed down from one musician to the next — then that conversation can only ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
Fragments of a Bohlen-Pierce Composition (Pt 8)
Since discovering my opening statement, I’ve been itching to place it within a musical context. I developed a rough outline of what the first minute of the piece may sound like, ending with a possible transition into the second part of the composition.
Download: fragments_8.csd
There is a lot of space in there, which will give me a lot of head room when I go back to this section to flesh it out and polish it up. Especially with spatial elements, like panning, reverbs and echos.
I need to bring up something else. Turns out that the chn opcodes are broken on some platforms, which is preventing people from not being able to render these csd files. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to go back and convert my effects routing to zak or similar system. So in the mean time, if you aren’t on OS X, you won’t be able render the csds. However, I’m told that the bug has been fixed in CVS, so these files should work in the next release of Csound. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Originally posted by Jacob Joaquin from The Csound Blog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
This weekend: Eroica Trio, etc. - San Francisco Chronicle
This weekend: Eroica Trio, etc. San Francisco Chronicle Violinist Susie Park, cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio and pianist Erika Nickrenz join forces in music by Beethoven, Brahms and Joan Tower. 2:30 pm Sun. ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 25, 2010 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2010
Critic's notebook: 'Shutter Island' as a new-music haven - Los Angeles Times (blog)
Critic's notebook: 'Shutter Island' as a new-music haven Los Angeles Times (blog) He pointed out that while everyone agrees the Berlin Philharmonic's recording of Ligeti's “Lontano” is the best, he chose the Vienna Philharmonic recording ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Ghetto Palms 90: New Styles / Shangaan Electro / South Africa Road Epic! - The FADER (blog)
 The FADER (blog) | Ghetto Palms 90: New Styles / Shangaan Electro / South Africa Road Epic! The FADER (blog) Electrified Shangaan music is shockingly fast, yet weirdly meditative. Quadruple-time tempos alternate with one-drop chord changes and slippery shifts of ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
BARTOK: Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano; Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin ... - Audiophile Audition
 Audiophile Audition | BARTOK: Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano; Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin ... Audiophile Audition 144), which soon transcends its merely “intervallic” exploration and points to a world soon inhabited by Kurtag and Ligeti. Pieces like Notturno (No. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Critic's notebook: 'Shutter Island' as a new-music haven - Los Angeles Times (blog)
Critic's notebook: 'Shutter Island' as a new-music haven Los Angeles Times (blog) But this time it was the sound of a foghorn, and it had the rich, compelling texture of music. It was music. It was also a real, old-fashioned foghorn. ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Against the monoculture of modernity
The terrible amnesia to which humankind is prey is undoubtedly one of the principal causes of our inability to learn from history. The invasion of Occitania and particularly the massacre on 22nd July, 1209, of the 20,000 inhabitants of Béziers on the pretext that the town harboured 230 heretics whom the town council refused to hand over to the Crusaders, dramatically recalls similar events in modern times, such as the Spanish Civil War triggered in 1936 by Franco's army with the excuse of the Communist threat and the division of Spain, the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 with the excuse of the Sudetenland, and the invasion of Poland by Hitler's German troops, in September 1939, over the question of Gdansk.Frankly I find it very difficult to add anything to that extract from Jordi Savall's introductory essay to his latest project The Forgotten Kingdom - The Albigensian Crusade, but I will try.
More recently, we remember the wars in Vietnam (1958-1975), Afghanistan (2001), those launched in retaliation against the terrorist attacks of 11th September, and the Iraq war (2003) with the excuse of that country's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction. Just as the laws promulgated by Pope Innocent IV in his Bull on torture, Ad Exstirpanda of 1252, contemplated all the methods of accusation with no possible defence (still in place today at Guantanamo) and authorized torture as a means of extracting information from heretics, so do countries ruled by dictatorial and unscrupulous regimes today still deny the rights of those they accuse. Punishment was meted out not just to those convicted of heresy, but also to those accused without being sentenced, by the demolition and the very destruction of the foundations of their houses, a procedure still used today against the houses of Palestinian terrorists.
Absolute evil is always the evil inflicted by man on man. That is why, in common with François Cheng, we believe that "it is our urgent and permanent task to unveil the two mysteries which constitute the extremes of the living world: on the one hand, evil, and on the other, beauty. For what is at stake is no less than the truth of human destiny, a destiny which involves the very foundations of our freedom."
Eight centuries have passed, and yet the memory of the crusade against the Albigensians has not been erased. Even today, it evokes sorrow and pity. Leaving myth and legend aside, the destruction of the memory of that remarkable civilisation which was the "land of Oc", destined to become a truly forgotten kingdom, and the terrible tragedy of the Cathars or "Good Men" and their witness to their faith, deserve our unreserved respect and determined effort to preserve their historical memory.
Jordi Savall is seen above, photographed during my just-in-time interview with him in 2008. Scholarship, musicianship and production excellence are givens for any of his projects and this new release, which documents in music and texts the Albigensian Crusade of the 13th century, is no exception. Three CDs come in a sumptuous 560 page book and in addition to the constant of Hespèrion XXI there are guest musicians from Armenia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Morocco. But there is something else that makes the The Forgotten Kingdom exceptional.
The Albigensian Crusade was the established Church's reaction to the supposedly heretical Cathar Christians of south-western France who were virulent critics of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy. In one of the illuminating essays that accompanies The Forgotten Kingdom David Renaker of San Francisco State University gives the first English translation of Pope Innocent IV's infamous Ad Exstirpanda, a papal license to torture. David Renaker concludes his illuminating essay by saying:
One only needs to read the Ad Exstirpanda to discover that the inquisition [against the Cathars] was not about faith and not even about heresy, but about wealth and power, and the crudest method of attaining these - terror.In the Middle Ages multinational armies, the Crusaders, were used to attain wealth and power. It is not difficult to see similarities between those armies of long ago and today's multinational media conglomerates, who seek wealth and power by restricting choice and establishing a monoculture of modernity. Free thinking is today's heresy, and it will surely not be long before those who swim against the tide meet the same fate as the Cathars of Béziers.
The Forgotten Kingdom is an important reminder, in both historical and contemporary contexts, of the importance of protecting the foundations of our freedom. Through music and texts documenting the tragedy of the Cathars, a group who dared to swim against the tide, we are reminded how wealth and power corrupts. And through the singular commitment of a group of artists working outside the media controlled celebrity circuit with a musician owned independent record label we are reminded of the true price of today's monoculture of modernity.
Swimming against the tide has always been deeply unfashionable. But is that tide turning? The Norfolk & Norwich Festival has a long and distinguished history, and its commissions include works from free thinkers such as Benjamin Britten (Our Hunting Fathers), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Five Tudor Portraits) and William Alwyn's (Fifth Symphony). In recent years the Festival's headline acts have included, as reported here, others who swim against the tide, including Jacques Loussier, the Hilliard Ensemble and last year Philip Glass.
In 2010 the closing concert of the Festival is not EMI's latest Chinese pianist or Sting's latest supermarket merchandised blockbuster. In another blow against the monoculture of modernity the closing concert is the UK premiere of Jordi Savall's Jerusalem, and the volume of early ticket sales suggests that swimming against the tide may just be coming back into fashion.
* In another of the excellent essays in The Forgotten Kingdom Antoni Dalmau reviews how history has treated the Cathars and cautions against some recent fictional treatments. But the National Socialism's fascination with the Albigensian movement cannot pass unremarked, read more here.
* This blog is also guilty of capitulating to the monoculture of modernity, which means Amazon is usually cited as the default source for CDs. So it is worth noting that I bought The Forgotten Kingdom from Prelude Records for £27.99, the amazon.co.uk price is £36.89. That is Jordi Savall in Prelude Records in the photo above which comes from my post The tills are alive with the sound of early music.
* The terrible Albigensian Crusade started from Nîmes, which featured in one of my road trip posts.
Our tickets for his Jerusalem project at the Norwich & Norfolk Festival were bought at the box office. Other performers at the Festival include John McLaughlin. Photos of Jordi Savall are (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
Saturday, Feb. 27 - Advocate Weekly
Saturday, Feb. 27 Advocate Weekly ... performing original music as well as Alban Berg's Piano Sonata (1907), Elliott Carter's Piano Sonata (1946) and more, 1 pm $10/adults, $5/students. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
Daedelus Makes Electronic Music Come Alive - Flagpole Magazine
 Flagpole Magazine | Daedelus Makes Electronic Music Come Alive Flagpole Magazine They had all the major players, your John Cage, your Xenakis, all that kind of stuff." He summed up his attraction to electronic composition despite formal ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
Solstice Wind Quintet to perform at WSU - WSU Today
 WSU Today | Solstice Wind Quintet to perform at WSU WSU Today The program will include Franz Danzi's Quintet in Bb major, Witold Lutoslawski's Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon, Ludwig van Beethoven's Duo No. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
Preview calendar: Clubs and concerts for Feb. 25-March 3 - North County Times
Preview calendar: Clubs and concerts for Feb. 25-March 3 North County Times San Diego IndieFest 6: Metric, Far and the Nappy Roots ---- The three groups headline this two-day, outdoor concert festival with live music on seven stages ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
Failure to Communicate
By Colin HolterIt's remarkable that you can revisit a piece years after first encountering it and understand it so much better than you did before but not because you know more about music than you did then.
Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)
I Am A Composer
Even as I was signing up for the American Composers Orchestra's "Compose Yourself" classes last year, I wasn't sure it was because I wanted to compose; but I hear a lot of new music and sometimes write about it, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get inside the composer's head, to understand more of the process and therefore have more insight into the music.Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)
New Works
As of the end of the Fall Semester at Columbia, I’ve completed two new works. The first, Currents, is scored for flute, Bb clarinet, piano, violin, and cello. The pitch material for both melodic and harmonic functions were derived spectrally, and both use microtones to provide added color to the piece as a whole. This is not a purely microtonal work, but utilizes the microtones in a natural, harmonically supportive way.
The pitches were derived by analyzing three violin harmonics, A, Ab, and C#. Each analysis showed between 4-6 prominent harmonics of the fundamental, and 2-4 prominent overtones. The harmonics were used to create three separate modes, which provides sonic stability for each section and gives interesting results through modulation.
The aesthetic approach in Currents was exploring the direction and redirection of energy through active gestures in a harmonically stable environment, or stasis in the context of a modulating harmonic world. The ideas are simple, yet I feel the execution is my most mature, clear, and artistic. Members of the Argento Chamber Ensemble read Currents in December.
Both the performers and conductor gave me excellent feedback and the piece was quite well received. A rough recording of this session will be available soon. Chicago-based group, Accessible Contemporary Music will read it as part of their weekly reading sessions this season. A link to that reading will be posted as soon as it’s available. I do have plans of revising and lengthening Currents, so it’s a work in progress, but the material assembled now works as a complete thought.
The second piece, Ananta, involves the same process in regards to spectrally derived modes, but is different from Currents in that Ananta explores one mode and is much slower paced. It is scored for toy-piano and cello and focuses on melodic development in the cello and harmonic support in the toy-piano. Conceptually, the music is quite introvertive and the challenge is establishing a balance between intro- and extroversion. Introversion being the self and expressing the individual parts and extroversion being cross-communication between the performers. Ananta received first place in the UNcaged Toy Piano Call for Works, hosted by toy-pianist Phyllis Chen. It was going to be featured on the Sounding Off Tour, but due to unforeseen conflicts was removed along with other pieces. It will be performed in the near future and a performance date will be posted as soon as it is scheduled.
Originally posted by admin from Ryan Manchester, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
Bird Guitar
Opening this weekend at the Barbican, in London, is The Curve, an installation by the French sound-artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. The new piece is described as “a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.” The film above is of a previous Boursier-Mougenot bird event. The birds seem to show the influence variously of John Cage, Olivier Messiaen, and Keith Rowe. (Via Fingertips.)
Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
First Semester at Columbia
This will be my first post in a long time because I’ve been so busy. Composing has been taking up the majority of my time (which is a good thing).
I’ve recently completed two pieces, both of which derive pitch material from spectral principles. This was my first attempt in using spectral techniques and since I’m working with Tristan Murail at Columbia, I saw a great opportunity to learn from a true master. Murail is a fantastic teacher. Not once has he tried to impose his way of thinking or working on any student, but instead takes what the student has done and works to make that statement stronger and more clear.
His teaching method paired with his modest, approachable personality makes him one of the better teachers with whom I’ve studied. After only one semester, I feel my music is bridging the gap between the purely conceptual and the artistic.
Originally posted by admin from Ryan Manchester, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
Telegraph: Audiences hate modern classical music because their brains cannot cope
Audiences hate modern classical music because their brains cannot cope
Modern classical music is so widely disliked by audiences because the human brain struggles to find patterns it needs to understand the compositions as music.
....
Using brain scanning equipment Professor Kraus, who presented her findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego on Saturday, said the brainwaves recorded from volunteers listening to music could be converted back to sound.
xample where volunteers listened to Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water, when the brainwaves were played back the song was clearly recognisable.
She said: "When we play the brainwaves back as sound, although they don't sound exactly like the song, it is pretty similar. It shows that the brain matches the physical properties of sound very closely."
Originally posted by jeff from new music reblog plus, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)
2010 TIF brings new approaches to performance and music - eTaiwan News
2010 TIF brings new approaches to performance and music eTaiwan News The 2010 Taiwan International Festival hosted by NTCH joyfully offers all music enthusiasts and art lovers an unprecedented sensory experience ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)
Music review: Kagel's bikes play Grand Avenue - Los Angeles Times
Music review: Kagel's bikes play Grand Avenue Los Angeles Times The subset of bicycle-themed works in classical music is small. We have nothing as artistically central as Marcel Duchamp's ready-made of a bicycle wheel. ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)
OGOGO is releasing the first CD of his “Film Cues” series, entitled Vodka ... - I-Newswire.com (press release)
OGOGO is releasing the first CD of his “Film Cues” series, entitled Vodka ... I-Newswire.com (press release) Someone might correctly sense that OGOGO grew up with Russian Avant-Garde scene in his hometown by the burning psychedelics and guitar madness of "Vodka ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Miller Theatre & Columbia U. School of Arts Honor 2009 William Schuman Award ... - Broadway World
Miller Theatre & Columbia U. School of Arts Honor 2009 William Schuman Award ... Broadway World "Pauline Oliveros is an eternal innovator whose work has deeply influenced the evolution of many strains of contemporary classical music, from electronic to ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
SXSW 2010: Danny Barnes - Spinner
 Spinner | SXSW 2010: Danny Barnes Spinner I consider myself a contemporary artist and am interested in contemporary composed music; avant-garde, improvised music; electronic music; metal and doom, ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
SOCIAL CIRCUIT | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/24/2010 - Philadelphia Inquirer
SOCIAL CIRCUIT | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/24/2010 Philadelphia Inquirer The evening marked the opening of the special exhibition "Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris," which explores the influential artist in the context of his ... |
Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Loogies, Hearing Aides, New Music Concerts, and blushing in Flushing
New Music concert tonight. All living composers, in the room. (except Mr. Marquis)You know that scene in "Heat," where DeNiro barks into the phone, "What am I doin? I'm talkin to an empty telephone." [Dude in trouble]: "I don't understand." DeNiro: "Cause there is a dead man on the other end of this fuckin line."
Well, how about an empty hall? Filled with clingers on. Standing on the shore. One foot in the river, already. Buncha old guys who wrote tunes, buncha young losers sawing them out, buncha old people listening.
This is music?? What the FUCK!!
The most beautiful sounds were the overtone series, streaming out like fairy icicles, from the hearing aid from an old mountain of feathery white hair and bundled coat material, hunched in the back. At one moment, he was hawking the most disgusting loogies, which reverberated throughout the entire church. I'm talking loogies that would make the old chinese men/women who, with them, pave the streets in Flushing, end up blushing. If I tried, I couldn't re-create these repiratorally clawing sounds of imminent death.
At one point, he pronounced to his wife, "Can you hear it?"
But it was the dulcet tones of his hearing aid, removed and adjusted every five minutes, that gentle whistling of the aural post-man, to make Schoenberg jealous, which made my heart gentle.
God set us all awound in his santuary, that room, whose scope was shrunken by the paucity of our intentions, and watched the unfolding. Pure theater.
Originally from Fuck Classical Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
The Classical Music Network - ConcertoNet
The Classical Music Network ConcertoNet I think that György Ligeti's Cello Concerto is one of the greatest cello works of the 20th Century, but this early nine-minute Sonata, which was new to me, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
LateRooms.com - Take in the Opera Festival in Berlin - 24-7PressRelease.com (press release)
LateRooms.com - Take in the Opera Festival in Berlin 24-7PressRelease.com (press release) Performances will include Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin and Tristan and Isolde, with famous faces such as Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez stepping up to ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Miller Theatre & Columbia U. School of Arts Honor 2009 William Schuman Award ... - Broadway World
Miller Theatre & Columbia U. School of Arts Honor 2009 William Schuman Award ... Broadway World "Pauline Oliveros is an eternal innovator whose work has deeply influenced the evolution of many strains of contemporary classical music, from electronic to ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 05:11 AM | Comments (0)
Get thee to Adelaide for a feast of entertainment - Crikey
Get thee to Adelaide for a feast of entertainment Crikey And one of the big-ticket shows, the English National Opera's version of Le Grand Macabre, György Ligeti's anti-anti-opera about the apocalypse, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 05:11 AM | Comments (0)
Glenn Branca Ascends Anew - Village Voice
Glenn Branca Ascends Anew Village Voice 3 (Tribute to Steve Reich)," and the 20-minute cataclysmic trip "The Blood." "Sonic Youth captured my sound pretty good as a quartet, and I usually work ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)
Presenting a Shiny Gem in an Unusual Setting - New York Times
Presenting a Shiny Gem in an Unusual Setting New York Times The conclusion of Carol Wincenc's Ruby Anniversary Series on March 31 is a program of works by Joan Tower, Yuko Uebayashi, Shih-Hui Chen, Andrew Thomas and ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 24, 2010 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2010
Songs - Interviews - Undertheradar
Songs - Interviews Undertheradar Steve Reich and bands like The Dead C really changed how I think about music, Alan Licht, John Fahey, John Cage, John Cale etc. People that have rethought ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Spiro, The Forge, Basingstoke - Financial Times
Spiro, The Forge, Basingstoke Financial Times But their relationship to traditional music is oblique. Vaughan Williams took old country melodies and reworked them into his classical palette. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Attention Must Be Paid
By Frank J. OteriLarge portions of the general public need to be brought into the audience if a Composers' Day is to ultimately mean something significant in our society.
Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
RPM Challenge: T minus 5 days…
New piece, solo piano: simple, pretty, largely improvised in my office. I’m going to codify things a little bit more in the next day or so and hope to get a better recording up by week’s end.
Slumber Music 2 – draft by jaybatzner
Originally posted by Jay C. Batzner from Jay C. Batzner, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Capriccio/Concertino
Leos Janacek - Capriccio/Concertino LP released in 1965Performers:Hilde Somer - pianoCaramoor Festival Orchestra: Julius Rudel - conductor, Claude Monteux - flute, Raymond Crisara - trumpet, Adel Sanchez - trumpet, Robert Hauck - trombone, Abraham Pearlstein - trombone, Robert Wright - trombone, John Swallow - tuba, Joseph Schor - violin, Secondo Proto - violin, Julian Barber - viola, GeorgeOriginally from A Closet of Curiosities, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Arborea Sardinia Under Water
Sound Clip: Arborea Sardinia Under Water by Michael Peters
The city of Arborea on the island of Sardinia, Italy, lies where a large swamp used to be. In the early 1920s, Italian dictator Mussolini ordered it to be drained, so drainage channels and pump works were built. Where the swamp used to be, residents built an artificial city with rectangular numbered streets that used to be called Mussolinia, and is now called Arborea. A mile north of Arborea lies a warm lagoon and a beautiful (although fascist) Bauhaus style drainage pump work, called Idrovora di Sassu. A road goes by, with a bridge crossing the end of a drainage channel at the edge of the lagoon. A hydrophone was placed into the water, not far from a group of flamingos. You can hear the occasional rumble of cars passing over the bridge, and most prominently, the beautiful sounds of what I think are underwater insects.
Originally posted by Margaret from Sound is Art, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Tuesday Links
- Maybe it’s just not very fun. Thoughts on concert attendance from Texas.
- John Gravois re-examines conventional thinking on remittance and migrant workers from Dubai.
- Can’t stop listening to this. Beguiling for reasons as yet unknown.
- Napping boosts brain power. No wonder Miss Mussel is a genius.
- Our downstairs neighbour’s suspicion of anything intellectual never fails to confound.
- Frank & Katharine & Wolfie. SohotheDog was right - there is something quite charming about this.
Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
La Neige En Fevrier
Up here in Canadia, also known as The Best Olympic Host In The History Of The Universe, we were sort of hoping that the unusually clement weather might just melt into spring without incident.
Wrong.
Two nights ago, whoever is in charge up there cleared out the remaining winter stock in one fell swoop. Presumably they were making room for the new season of rain and occasional burst of sunshine. If Miss Mussel finds out that another shipment of white stuff arrived, well….she will make several empty threats that will have absolutely zero effect on the situation. So there. Harrumph!
The photograph is from a hilarious series on PassiveAgressiveNotes.com about people getting all territorial about their freshly shoveled parking spaces. Miss Mussel has heard of people in Montreal using cones, but chairs and tables are taking to another level entirely. See the rest of the series here.
Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Fragments of a Bohlen-Pierce Composition (Pt 7)
I have discovered my opening statement; a simple melody that will be the musical foundation for the rest of the piece.
Download: fragments_7.csd
Originally posted by Jacob Joaquin from The Csound Blog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
Integritas, Consonantia, Claritas
Reviewing the Claremont Trio and the Setzer-Finckel-Han Trio.Boston Globe, February 23, 2010.
I made it from a 1:30 concert at the Gardner Museum to a 3:00 concert at Jordan Hall by running a nine-minute mile. Not bad for an overweight critic! Two days later, my knees still hurt.
Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Shutter Island - Santa Barbara Independent
 Santa Barbara Independent | Shutter Island Santa Barbara Independent ... stunning use of music. Robbie Robertson serves as a super-savvy musical supervisor, supplying some of the great 20th-century modernists—György Ligeti, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Philly Orchestra announces 2010-11 program - Cherry Hill Courier Post
Philly Orchestra announces 2010-11 program Cherry Hill Courier Post Now 94, Dutilleux continues to compose, and three of his works, including the violin concerto “L'Arbre de songes” on October 21-23, dot the season. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
Interview: Martin Scorsese, film director - Scotsman
Interview: Martin Scorsese, film director Scotsman ... John Adams, John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti and Morton Feldman. And this music, much of it dissonant, stark, hauntingly repetitious or plain spooky, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
The Beatles and the Avant-Garde
In my column this week, I mention a resemblance between Iannis Xenakis’s pioneering avant-garde piece “Metastasis” (1953-54) and the orchestral passages in the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” (1967). In the opening measures of Xenakis’s piece, forty-six string instruments begin together on the note G and then slide away from it in an expanding web of glissandos, until they achieve a massive cluster chord. The Beatles took a more improvisatory approach: musicians from the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic were asked to go from their lowest note to their highest note, with the rest left to chance. Here are excerpts side by side:
m/audio/audio-player.js"> ng the Southwest Radio Symphony at the Donaueschingen Musiktage, Oct. 1955 (world premiere); col legno AU-031800.
I haven’t found Xenakis’s name mentioned in any Beatles sources. Karlheinz Stockhausen is another matter; the lads dropped his heavy name on more than one occasion and placed his face on the cover of “Sgt. Pepper” (top row, fifth from left). You can hear the influence by comparing Stockhausen’s classic electronic piece “Gesang der Jünglinge” with “Tomorrow Never Knows”:
m/audio/audio-player.js"> href="http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/gesang-der-juenglinge/audio/1/" target="_blank">here. The official Stockhausen Web site has scans of correspondence that the Beatles team sent to Stockhausen in an effort to obtain permission to put his face on “Sgt. Pepper”: first a politely bureaucratic letter (with the composer’s first name misspelled) and then an anxious telegram from Brian Epstein. Stockhausen was busy, but got back to the Beatles in time to grant their request. You can also see a Christmas card that John Lennon and Yoko Ono sent to Stockhausen in 1969.
A final classical Beatles tidbit—Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony roaring through the murk of “Revolution 9”:
Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
Lutoslawksi's Concerto for Orchestra, or, Happy Birthday, Dominique Jean - Pedro and the Watcher (blog)
Lutoslawksi's Concerto for Orchestra, or, Happy Birthday, Dominique Jean Pedro and the Watcher (blog) A passacaglia, according to Harvard's Dictionary of Music (my old edition edited by Willi Apel), is a continuous series of variations based on an ostinato ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
Al Bustan's Italian Quartet: a delightful sound - Star Scene (blog)
Al Bustan's Italian Quartet: a delightful sound Star Scene (blog) The first four pieces were all reinterpreted for the saxophone by Salvatore Sciarrino and the rest were meant for the sax. The four saxophonists were great ... |
Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)
Violin, 12 brakedrums, 6 flowerpots ...
Instrumentation: violin, 12 brakedrums, 6 flowerpots, plumbers pipe, damped plumbers pipe, wind chimes (glass & metal), 2 sistra, temple blocks, dustbins, spring coils, cymbals, congas, gongs, double bass laid on its back and struck with sticks, snare drum, tom toms, maracas, 2 triangles, tin cans.Lou Harrison's Concerto for the Violin with Percussion Orchestra calls for these instruments. A wonderful and genuinely accessible work from a composer who should be much better known. Below is the recommended recording from Madeleine Mitchell violin, Ensemble Bash and Karen Hutt percussion.
Lou Harrison's Fifth Simfony (yes really) is here.
Header photo was taken by me at Wisques, France on my recent road trip, but I couldn't see the violin. Image is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. Fiddlesticks was bought at retail price. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)
Rushus - Stories
The Russian jazz trio Rushus plays experimental jazz fusion that is almost impressionistic in style. It slowly drifts into your ears and caresses your mind. The primary artist for Rushus is guitarist Ilya Lipkin who has a distinctive Al DiMeola sound that most will find both exotic and relaxing. Yet on Japanese Prog they wander into progressive rock with enthusiasm. Stories is a fine collection of intelligent jazz tracks .
The album is available either through an album zip from the Russian Association of Independent Genres or from the Free Music Archive at the link below.
Originally posted by Marvin from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
reflections on #musicblogocide2k10
The law has pretty much steered clear of the grey area surrounding mp3 blogs since their rise to prominence ~7 years ago. Meanwhile, other regulatory forces have helped the blogosphere develop an organic code of conduct that benefits the interests...Originally from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
2009 Favorites - Other Lists: Tanner Menard
- Asuna - Flowers - Music Related
- Nicholas Szczepanik - The Chiasmus - Basses Frequences + Sra
- Celer - Close Proximity And The Unhindered Care-All - Sra
- Counterspark - Existence - Archaic Horizon
- Hiroki Sasajima - Monogenic - Sra
- Ian Hawgood - Wolfskin - Hibernate
- Jeremy Bible + Jason Henry - Ound - Abgurd
- Ryonkt - Small Conversations - Experimedia
- Chubby Wolf - Meandering Pupa - Self Release
- Misound - Stanze Di Te - Slow Flow
- Mathieu Ruhlmann - Fourteen Worms For Victor Hugo - Gears Of Sand
- Segue - Into The Fall - Slow Flow
- Entia Non - Disinter - Sra
- Stephen Spera - 4{H²O} - Parvoart
- Of Cycling Light - Cition - Hlm
Label: H.L.M
Cat. #: H.L.M 07
Release date: 02/2010
______________________________________
Links:
Tanner Menard
Originally from Spiritual Archives, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 23, 2010 at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
Schoenberg Gershwin Mashup
Maestro Sahar sent in a video response to the Gershwin performance a few days back. It’s really an entertaining mash-up between Schoenberg piano music and Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.”